You might think they are clueless but there is a method to IT's madness. I would not recommend publicly trashing anybody in corporate buying chain if you ever plan to go upscale and sell your services for 7 figures at CIO's level. Nobody appreciates being publicly called a fool.
CIO's job is to manage massive resources and organizations - first and foremost to keep the critical line-of-business systems running. For most of them cloud right now is neither the top priority nor a viable substitute for core infrastructure. You are right on with your strategy to get foot in the door to circumvent their slow-moving processes. However you should be thinking of how to work yourself into their higher-level planning process instead of positioning yourself as adversary of their corporate policy by calling it stupid.
Just remember, the CIOs have the power to ban technologies that sneak out through the back door. Alienate them at your own peril!
EDIT: Whoever down voted this, please post an actual substantive rebuttal.