OH yes.
I too am annoyed by the way certain people (and I would go so far as to say that these are usually NOT devout, totally-behind-the-Christian-message people) have hijacked that phrase? They jump on it like cheap lawyers and cackle "Ah! Ah! Jesus said you'll never solve the poverty problem so why bother trying?" or even "Jesus put himself ahead of poor people so why shouldn't we?"

To me, "she should have given the money to the poor" is just a feint along the same lines as "why are we worrying about abstract concepts such as feminism in fandom when there are starving people in the world?" Poor people are hence reduced to a handy stick to beat your opponents with - and the marvellous thing about it is that it makes YOU look good at the same time as making your opponents look bad!

She moaned about fandom injustice: why isn't she spending her time worrying about the poor?
She wasted all that perfume: why isn't she spending her money on the poor?

I think Jesus is merely saying, "Look, Judas, you can't use that now. You can help the poor any time you like, so don't get on this woman for making a generous gesture towards me this one time."

It was never intended to be a comment that poverty is an insoluble problem.