I guess at least you have curling in the winter Olympics, which is enjoyable to watch and I like some of the skiing events.
but mostly, its drawn out, fixed, manipulated events that you mostly can't even watch live....
I realized that you already 'hedged' but I would say most of the 'small' sports (low popularity in TV ratings) are probably genuine. Cheating at Badminton is probably unlikely.
Still, it is the fact that it is a world-wide effort with real human stories that does draw the interest. Take the Jamaican Bobsled Team as a prime example! Personally, I'd rather have a permanent fixed neutral site for the quadrennial games but that has its own set of risks.