Is having a working demo or MVP the most important? Is it all about the team or does that not matter if they've already demonstrated their competence? Do you want the ICO team to generate hype and "oversell" or would you rather a more honest and direct approach?
for me the most important thing in ico is honest and what it is. and is part of honesty is if they can show their prototype, this is a bit more proof that their project is real