No matter what you say about the IC business, there are plenty of other parts involved.
Indeed, my early skepticism was mostly on the boards / individual miners (single slot PCI Express cards) which seemed poorly thought and while not being covered by a NDA, still have zero info, not even mockups. Despite my efforts they still all focused on "eASIC".
But it turns out even the chips aren't there!
Seriously. Look at the progress reports from cointerra and hashfast. Anyone buying from VMC or investing in their crazy share scheme must just like to get ripped off.