That's a fine distinction between preference formation and the rational inference from one preference to another. But can economists afford not to encompass the former if they mean for economics to be a basis for judging the merits of economies?

You say economic rationality isn't about preference formation. Is that a law of nature, saying economists aren't allowed to talk about that? No, it's a choice to ignore the underbelly of capitalism, just as I said. It's swept under the rug as an externality, or whatever. Indeed, the question of whether our preferences are good or authentic is a philosophical matter of morality, and to broach that question is to open a can of worms on all of economics.

Economics can't seem scientific if it gets into value judgments. But the point is that if advertising makes nonsense of the neoclassicist's individualistic model of how society benefits from the calculations of independent, self-interested economic actors, then that model is a whitewash.

Neoclassical economics assumes individualism, as I understand it, and mainstream economics is still dominated by that tradition.