I could not agree more, Bitcoin Amsterdam was my first and probably last event. Researching blockchain protocols is one of the tasks I do at work, which thankfully paid for the admission ticket. Going there was a complete waste of time: underwhelming talks, underwhelming companies/exhibitors, underwhelming vibe. I was expecting to learn something new about recent innovations in LN or core protocol like drivechains, zerosync, rgb, covenants etc, but nothing. These events are mainly for people that want to feel cool and say “I went to a Bitcoin event”, no real techie or decentralization/privacy advocate can be found there