Where the marketers of these things fall short is in thinking that their strategies are universally applicable. It depends upon your learning style or perhaps how organized your thinking is to begin with. Some people have more trouble than others spotting logical adjacency between two ideas.  Like you, I find them pretty much useless.  However, I spend a lot of time with students who have learning disabilities who find these programs invaluable to organize their thoughts into a cogent paper.  In some cases, it seems to be the only thing that can.

If they work for you, they're great.  If you don't need them, they're just a waste of time and money. 