This seems to be an intractable problem. You have a customer base that demands decentralization and a VC class that is more concerned with re-centralization. The financial model requires both groups.

Scientist and engineer interested in Life across the Universe.

Work on (GOF)AI, Agriculture, Biology, Robotics, Deep Space.

Sort of, I think for all the doublespeak, no one is really trying to remove barriers to entry, quite the contrary, both are creating a rigid hierarchy with limited social mobility. A healthy market thrives on removing these barriers, not in multiplying principalities

Is it the financial model the reason for intractability then? The standoff just being a consequence?