Samuel,
We could say the same thing about bright flashlight beams and self-defense. e.g. SureFire talks of using the very bright beams from some of their lights as an offensive weapon, yet most people say, and a few people know for sure, that a bright beam all by itself is not much of a defensive or offensive weapon. I recall one thread about dogs and how they are not scared off by bright lights . . . but whatever. The point is that the pepper spray is not meant to be an isolated, stand-alone capability. The idea is force escalation. You have the light in your hand and it allows you to see, while putting the suspect at a disadvantage, and then at the same time you have a hidden offensive capability that you can move to in the event that the person takes any offensive action. Will it instantly incapacitate him on contact? Of course not. Is it a useful thing to have in hand, built right into your light that you need anyway? Well, I would imagine so, but I'm not a LEO. So, continuing on, if the person shrugs off the pepper spray, well then you haven't lost anything versus a scenario without the pepper spray, and you could go to your gun or some concussion weapon, or whatever. I don't know, but I imagine that an LEO would confirm what I am saying.
As for the "hype" on the TL website, I don't know why it is such an issue. There's a lot of hype on the SureFire website too. Most manufacturers think highly of their products. There's nothing wrong with that. The issue is not whether there is or is not hype, but rather whether there is anything substantive to the hype. And in the case of the OC TL, it would seem to me that it is obvious that there is something real to hype. I have sold my TL mods to more than a couple LEO's, and they liked their TL's even before I made them brighter. I'm sure there were reasons why, and I'll bet that at least a few LEO appreciate the OC capability.
But again, I have no personal experience in this area and don't own a TL OC, but only TL FBOP's. I can speak as to why I think they are great lights but that's as far as it goes for me. Still, I'm pretty sure that you can't dismiss the OC TL by saying that it's all a bunch of hype.