Of course it discourages complex thinking: each slide is a tree and you are never given a glimpse of the forest. In some cases I have experienced, there are so many slides that they are random branches of unrelated trees, but you will have an exact description of that branch. But that tells you less than nothing, because you have no map to place that branch on the particular tree in the particular forest.

If an instructor is not sufficiently well-versed in the subject matter and both confident and articulate enough to convey that knowledge in a fashion understandable to students with some background in the topic, maybe they should consider alternate employment.

If one is teaching an introductory course or presenting to new hires, PowerPoint can be a good way to lay a foundation of information upon which to build a knowledge base. To teach at what I consider a college level (bachelor degree in 1973: so, yes, I can be called a curmudgeon on this), PowerPoint will usually prevent the student from passing beyond rote learning into analytical and critical thinking.

And if the little snowflakes can’t deal with something that isn’t spoon-fed to them, maybe they shouldn’t be in college.