Exactly. These magazines will often write really remedial subjects and present them as "advanced" topics. They cover a lot of technical details, stuff you will learn just as easily from a few books that you probably already own. The examples and contests often showcase well executed images of limited substance. They tend to be all about the "wow" factor and review technologies really, and not photography (digital camera shootouts, etc) and there seems to be an overwhelming sentiment while reading that one can kind of buy their way to talent. They are, after all, funded by camera and lens manufacturers.
It's fun to thumb through them, sometimes on occasion they'll have an article worth reading and they are a good overview of upcoming products. Their "reviews" tend to be more like advertisements, and any negative feedback on any given product is written to sound trivial - or my personal favorite line "might be too powerful for casual photographers".
One thing is that these magazines tend to be pretty cheap, so if you're just starting out they might be a good idea for a year or so of lighter reading to compliment any books you own or just to get some ideas.
But I have yet to find a good periodical explicitly about general photography; View Camera: The Journal of Large Format Photography is very good if you're looking for high quality visual inspiration but not much in the lines of DSLR techniques.