Crime and plotting is much harder to do prospectively than retrospectively. Having prospective records timestamped from a number of independent providers is really hard to fake.
That's true, but I cannot recall a recent instance of "cooked books" since everything started moving to centralized databases. The blockchain keeps looking like a solution in search of a problem that could be solved easier by other means.
I agree; I'm cynical on about 99.99% of touted blockchain use cases.
However, for the 0.01% of use cases where you can't trust the government (money printing) or where the stakes are too high to rely on the security of a trusted 3rd party, blockchain is great.