Oh, I completely agree. Especially in large GTD rebuy tournaments on-line. Its complete bingo game till the Add-ons kick in....
In all reality though, I've been able to make the money in most of these types of tournaments with only 1 or 2 buys and the add on. Now, its not that easy if your impatient. The sad truth is, you gotta wait for your opportunity with a premium hand and either entice a jam, or jam yourself to get a respectable stack. After that its about not losing it, and focusing on picking off the players that are still willing to play passive during all the chaos....
Like I said, its not easy, and can be very frustrating. But if you have the patients to just sit back and wait. baring a crazy suck out, or an unlucky set up. You will double, or triple up the first hand you decide to play. That normally is enough to ride out the storm.