It's not just machine learning; far too much tech - software and hardware - has this problem. Everyday here on HN you see discussions about the benefits of a new idea without any consideration for how it could be exploited.
Just the opposite. Rarely do you see any discussion of the benefits of a new idea. It's mostly hate.
I suspect we're probably talking past each other, though. Concrete examples would resolve it.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16542183
Notice the top comment is negative. In general, almost every top comment on HN is negative. It's hard to write well positively, just like it's hard to be a comedian and only make clean jokes.
Tools, like ideas, get feedback when posted to a forum like this. Feedback is rarely going to be all positive, especially in the cases where a tool is still rough.
Without straying too far from the original premise, it's worth pointing out that the idea of using a graph database for traditional tasks is in fact a new idea. Most people would not consider doing it, and that makes it new.
Notice an interesting philosophical thing that happens every time philosophical debates occur: We quickly get mixed up in a debate over the meaning of words. "What do you mean by 'new'?"
It's worth excluding such questions from debate. Questions over the meaning of words rarely go anywhere interesting. http://www.paulgraham.com/philosophy.html
Oh dear, look where we've ended up. But it was an intriguing place, I hope.
The overall point is that if you advocate something non-traditional on HN, you're in for a world of hurt. This place is nothing if not adversarial. You'd better have your I's dotted and your T's crossed. But those constraints are what make the medium so interesting.