This is my theory and it seems like a conspiracy theory (maybe it is, not sure).
Sam Altman
Knowingly started the world project because he knew it will result in
bad PR or in better words
terrible PR and these silicon valley billionaires are mostly followers of the thought
no publicity is bad publicity.
Well it seems like a conspiracy theory in a way as it wouldn't make sense either.
It's not the failed part of this that created brand awareness. It was the promise of tokens that created the hype, which has fallen with the price of those tokens.
Sam Altman has good publicity already as head of OpenAI, and being in the center of hype, why he would intentionally create something that he knows to be a failure? It doesn't create any controversy people would be talking about (which is the point of "any publicity is good publicity"). The fact that some people give their personal data away for money isn't a controversy, it's just about rich man exploiting poor people.
He didn't benefit from this. For people following, he just looks like a chump now and therefore people will think twice, to fund something designed by him in the future.