Those who bought the first batch without proof of a tapeout knew they were buying into hot air, but greed overwhelmed any rational consideration of doing business on reasonable terms.
Nah, run the numbers on what return was expected even if everything had gone according to plan. No one who can multiply bought in here because of an abundance of greed, it was never _that_ attractive an offer. The deal needed sweeteners like MPP, refund in BTC, in person meetings, and a partnership with an experienced design house before it sounded attractive.
Sorry, but greed is the only thing that can rationalize buying hardware in advance of a working prototype for terms that are 100% down payment and no equity position in the company.
Perhaps you were aware of the math that made the offer appear not compelling. I am willing to bet that most buyers considered 1 Ph/s by this time as very unlikely. And the 10 Ph/s we actually have would have been considered laughable.
A review of mining bond prices, or cloud hashing prices should make it obvious that the market is still dominated by math challenged fools.
Hopefully this latest debacle will teach people to insist on doing business on reasonable terms. It has been an intensely frustrating 18 months being driven out of the market by irrational "TAKE MY MONEY NOW!" speculators.