For me, group buys were always a concern if you had to pay up front. When I buy something, be it for the car, house, whatever, I expect the vendor to have stock to honour that purchase by return. Therefore I always funded advance stock myself, building in sufficient batches to minimise cost whilst hopefully keeping enough stock to satisfy unexpected demand, as is sure to be the case once people jump on the bandwagon following all the rave
reviews you will get 
There was a time when I had something like 20 kits gathering dust but that's a risk I decided to take. On the other hand there was also a time when I may have run out and needed to pay premium rates to be sure I had stock.
Now I fully understand why some of the larger projects would struggle for funding. I for one would not be able to fund something like wishbones, but asking folk to fork out 3 or 4 years in advance is not on.
I guess the only way is to either farm designs out as a commercial exercise, driving up the price, or finding a way to fund it without a expecting a few individuals to cough up. Don't see why a few folk should fund development when we all stand to benefit long term.
Just my view on it, not saying everyone must agree!
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