This didn’t explain to me what ICOs are. It basically stated “buy cryptocurrency, it’s a risk but why not try it anyway”.

I would be genuinely interested in understanding what an ICO is. In particular in contrast to more traditional forms of fund raising. I’d also be interested in understand why it isn’t obviously illegal, in the same way that selling stock to unqualified investors would be illegal.

I thought there would be a more technical explanation as to how it actually works on top of Ethereum. This is pretty much what I would find if I google "What is an ICO".