[inimino]

I felt an honesty and openness in the article which your rewrite (which I'd probably have stopped reading right around "dreams of avarice") lacks. The article isn't a plea for funding but an attempt to start a dialog about how to solve the perceived problem.

It's not all about money, and "making very rich rich men out of everyone associated with the project" is antithetical to the motivations conveyed by the piece.