[CPLX]

Deterrent from what, starting a business?

Your theory is that for 250 years America's entrepreneur class has been primarily driven by raiding their own tax-advantaged retirement accounts?

Also if your neighbor story is for real what happened there is he took a loan against his retirement account or did some kind of ROBS transaction. It's already illegal for him to interact with plan assets as part of a self-directed IRA, so he didn't use one to invest in his own business and buy vehicles. Hence this story has nothing to do with the topic at hand.