Since I've supported thousands of them in different settings, I have a statistically significant sample to go off of.
And you would be wise not to.
Which is why I don't. You have to check each scenario to see which software is best. Unlike you, I don't automatically discount one type of software for all scenarios.
And it's also a fact that presentation software is used a lot to get your message across to organizations outside your own.
I'm well familiar with "Death By Powerpoint." And I also know that there are various interchange formats available, as well as packaged presentations, that don't require Powerpoint or other presentation software to be on the viewing machine.
It is actually this de-facto use of Word, Excel and Powerpoint by the government for document interchange that I detest. You cannot expect a citizen to buy software just to use government documents, and just as well companies are stupid if they want to put this burden on others. Luckily, they've gotten away from that a bit, and the open PDF and SGML formats are the generally recognized way to send documents.
Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and other Office components all have free reader software... just like Adobe offers free viewers for Acrobat PDF documents.