And why is it so ridiculous to think they may have learned from past mistakes?
They keep repeating the same mistakes.
1. The form factor. They keep trying to cram as much heat as possible into as small an enclosure as possible. Nvidia and AMD have trouble venting so much heat in such a package. BFL now has better cooling designers than Nvidia and AMD?
2. Feature size. 28nm ASICS are much harder to get right than 65nm ASICs. Look at how long they took for 65nm and double it. That's what it's going to take.
3. Progress? Ooh, they have a 3D model of a video card. Underimpressed. Tapeout hasn't happened. There's tons to do even after they reach tapeout.
and so many more reasons.