To often when no constraints are placed on the use, junior "leaders" are apt to misguidedly go for the Wow Factor because they think it is a means to distinguish themselves from their peers...
To be fair you and Spud have valid points, but while the young (or just immature and not so young) can abuse the bells and whistles which add nothing to the brief, and simply serve to confuse and eat up bandwidth, the SOP approach can be abused also. An OPORD brief is a standard brief, so SOP away; however, you can use powerpoint for much more than an OPORD brief. If you're attempting to explain a complex situation (information brief) they can be useful. I'll attempt to find an unclassified example.