So the conclusion is

The lawyers can simply collect money without any real input. If a case is denied, it is normal and nothing wrong with the lawyer. If approved, the lawyer is just either your dad or the INS offices' dad.

is this ridiculous?

The real situation is (I think): even if it is true that EB1/NIW approval rate is low, it is because there are too many not very qualified applicants who just try their luck without losing anything (of course the CIS fileing fee is a must. but I doubt these people are willing to hire lawyers to do this cause they just try their luck.).

For people who have accumulate enough suppporting documents and take EB1/NIW very seriously (literally speaking), the approval rate is very high. It is even higher if a responsible lawyer is hired.