The OP has received feedback, but felt the necessity to debate the responders in a less than friendly manner. Reasonable and logical ideas were presented. Consequently the thread is now closed.

I get have the last word here. Hundreds and hundreds of Flyertalkers have used passport (and visa) expediting firms at some point in their lives, me being one of them. While I'm sure there are some firms better than others, it is a legitimate service industry that has been around for generations, establishing a niche which a subset of people are willing to pay a fee for. Not everybody has the benefit of time and geography to deal with the State Department's bureaucracy.

It is rare anecdotally for the Passport Agency to lose an application once it reaches their office. However getting it from the hands of the applicant to that office involves some level of risk.