"...However, there is certainly a valid argument to say investors deserve to understand issues with a company before they decide to funnel their money into it. ..."
It's more than just a valid argument. It's the law, more or less *everywhere*.
Once upon a time, when the company I started with a couple of friends was going public, the thieves who were writing the prospectus were talking about sales figures which were twice what I, as the company's Technical Director, knew we could make - even if we had the orders, which was a big if - because that much production exceeded the global capacity of the industry to make one of the components. The component was a particular type of radiation detector, which at the time was made by only two companies in the world. We'd pre-bought their entire output for the next several years.
At a board meeting I stood up and said, "I won't sign this". Not because it would have been fraud, which it would have been, but because it was just wrong.
There was a lot of shouting, and some threats, but as a direct result of my refusal to allow the scam a lot of investors didn't get hoodwinked.
A couple of years later they did another Public Offering, this time without the inconvenience of an honest Technical Director.
Frankly, some people will say *anything* to make a fast buck.
Sometimes I wish I could do that too but I'm just not made that way.
Sometimes I think I'm in the minority.