I enjoyed reading your perspective on Design Thinking. My understanding of your focus is on the value and best practices.
If it is done properly, Design Thinking can be a valuable proposition for complex business solutions. I agree that those who don’t know the methodology may bore the audience.
I facilitate Design Thinking workshops frequently and our clients, especially the user community embrace them as they want their voice echoed in the requirements gather process.
You are spot on the follow-up POC/POT practice.
I provided my perspective in a couple of articles here.