Ok lets start with the facts, as one of the technicians at this event I can tell you that we weren't instructed what filter to recommend, many of us - Myself included - spent most of the day installing k9. In my experience so far, and as I have said before I didn't spend that much time trying to crack this filter - but i haven't seen the vulnerabilities yet.
Now lets discuss your initial post -
1) You dismiss a product as a scam without any specific knowledge about this product.
2) You claim this how no benefit over K9 without knowing if this is indeed the case, or taking into account that K9 is a filter that can be bypassed pretty easily, if you Google k9 one of the first links that come up is how to get around it.
3) Venishmartem was never a money making organization - they were all about Public awareness and help, most of their website (especially until they produced their own filter) doesn't sell any of their own products.
4) They actually spent money and resources creating a free internet blocking app for blackberry.
5) if you read their filter guide you will see they clearly go thru each filter for each device with all the pros and cons.
6) Many technicians (myself included) try to help people by installing filters at these events - for no charge. In the following days we start getting calls I want facebook open, I want youtube blocked etc, we then have to teach a tech dummy how to install remote software and spend hours with this! This was one of the reasons I wasn't installing filters as much lately. With a cloud based filter this issue disappears - and since they pay for the filter per month they are entitled to full support and that in itself is very important.
7) You said "Thats true but I think the ball lies in their hand to say why its a better filter". Well in my book and I assume many other people the ball lies in your court to say why you feel something is a scam. Merely the fact that you dont know anything about it isn't a scam, call them and broaden your knowledge