It is very hard to find a good project on the earlier stages of development. But EDC Blockchain is not a new project. It started to develop in 2017.
Yes, this is the biggest difficulty in investing. If the project is promising, then ordinary users, as a rule, are not given the opportunity to invest. We can invest in other projects, but it is impossible to understand which one will give +100X. We have to guess in the literal sense.
I agree with you that if project is famous and already has a developed ecosystem an ordinary investors do not have opportunity to invest. Only a big venture investors invest in promising startups.