We do know — that is, we have decades of research that demonstrates — that some ed-tech works okay for some students in some subject areas under some circumstances. We also know that all of those qualifications in that previous sentence — which ed-tech, which students, which subject areas, what sort of circumstances — tend to play out in ways that exacerbate existing educational inequalities. Under normal conditions, ed-tech is no silver bullet. Why the hell would we expect it to be now?!
Although EdTech has issues, these are often intermingled with a wider system at work. I imagine that Watters would be just as critical of pedagogical practice or classroom strategies. I also never see any discussion of ethics or privacy in these edtech takedowns.
As you touch on, there is a need to move the debate forward, to include more nuance. I am just not sure if discussions of ‘boats in times of floods’ achieves this.