These commercial probiotics, like Culturelle and Align, just contain way to little bacteria to be effective.
That's simple not true. Although it is true that Align and other probiotics contain much less bacteria than probiotics like VSL3 for example this says nothing about their efficiency. When I took Align for the first time nearly all my food intolerances went away and I was feeling much better. After 3 months I slowly became intolerant to Align, had to stop taking it and my food problems returned.
The question is:
a) Is someone lacking bacteria and when yes, which strain? Do we actually know what a normal bacteria count is for each individual and which count is best for certain diseases and a certain genetic makeup?
b) Does someone have high intestinal permeability so that probiotics or their byproducts cross into the bloodstream and cause huge problems?
c) Do the probiotics reach this part of the gut where they are supposed to go to or do these bacteria settle in a place where they shouldn't?
d) We have around 400 strains in our gut. There exists a highly complicated interplay between all of these. Isn't it very childish to believe that just by ingesting a capsule with the same amount of a few strains where we don't know where they go, each day, we actually reach the right composition of these 400 strains?
For me it is much more interesting to know why our bacteria got dysbalanced in the first place and how our body can restore it.