Nope they dont realize it. But they are just riding with the hype. You can noticed how new projects and even old one changes their concept for a sudden. Coti, origin protocol, and many more have become a defi due to the market trend. Even some far related concept have incorporate defi. Best example is verasity that totally change their platform model. Sounds crazy but thats how business marketing and strategy to increase liquidity.
I think it's a natural thing, when the situation is not good as expected, they change their original platform to a defi platform. Business tricks like this can give you a lot of profit by taking advantage of the Hype Defi situation. I believe, we will see in the future there will be more Defi projects.