YMMV indeed. AngelList only works for those companies who already have preexisting connections to the angel/VC community. For companies with little or no existing social proof, AngelList is shockingly ineffective.
Stormpulse first appeared on AngelList on 8/24/10. We go no interest whatsoever and didn't even make it past the gatekeepers for any kind of introductions. It stung, bad. We had lots of traction, some revenue, and millions of visitors. And the best product in its class. I pretty much swore off AngelList with the same attitude you have right now.
13 months later we have 46 introductions and 149 followers, and the gatekeepers are saying it's one of the hottest listings on AL.
How did we do this?
* I applied to StartupRiot in Atlanta. I got accepted and pitched my heart out for 180 seconds. Didn't win, but met a guy from IBM.
* Guy from IBM invites us to Austin, TX to IBM SmartCamp. We pass through each of their interviews and become an Austin finalist. I pitch to a room full of investors for 5 minutes. We didn't win, but we met a lot of interesting folks in Austin, including Joshua Baer.
* Things were going pretty well for us earlier this year. We decide to try fundraising again. I email Joshua Baer. Joshua Baer invites us to Capital Factory Demo Day 2011 in Austin. I pitch for 180 seconds to a room full of investors. All of a sudden investors start handing us their cards and other entrepreneurs start offering to introduce us to anyone they can.
* We re-apply to AngelList, voila.
If you want to raise money, there's no substitute for working hard on your reputation. I'm a nobody from West Palm Beach, Florida. Seriously. If I can do it, maybe you can too. It's worth a try. (Also, please understand I'm not saying that working hard is the key to success--you may work just as hard or much much harder than I did and still fail. But that's for another blog post).
We don't actually need funding, as we have successfully bootstrapped our business and are quite profitable. But we set up a profile on AL anyway, in case we ever do decide to shake the money tree to accelerate growth beyond what our cash flow permits, in the future. Naturally, we have 0 followers.
Interestingly, 42 Floors (http://angel.co/42-floors) has done the same thing, and they have managed 112 followers despite not seeking funding.
I wouldn't necessarily blame Angel List.