I kinda intended to make that point in what I said, but I guess I didn't: Nothing about most "think"-pieces includes much in the way of thought. They are, almost solely, summations of someone else's thought through the lens of someone who did half the analysis they should have in order to understand it. Their value to PMC society is not in being smart or insightful, it is to either provide a thing which can be agreed upon in order to demonstrate one's moral rectitude or it is to provide a thing which can be disagreed with in order to demonstrate the deep and thoughtful nature of the reader. They serve as an alternative to talking about whichever other cultural artifact is currently widely known and discussed, and in that they also serve as a social semaphore, signaling that the reader is sufficiently cultured or whatever.