Sometimes you gotta throw your money at a lot of stuff to make something stick (and work).  The government routinely does this, and does it even more during times of war.  Music labels do this, as do sports agents, etc.

The truth is that there is no real guarantee that anything you throw your money at will work.  If you're evaluating BFL as a business, as a VC, it's probably not going to look very good.  But it could, so you take a chance.