If those are rude questions then I don't want to work there - not in this economy. We need to be picky who we work for so that company culture is favorable for employees. If we start working for whoever just cuts a paycheck then we become just another cog in the machine.

You can ask any question in a politer way and in a ruder way. Compare.

  A: What does your competition look like in this space?
  B: What's your plan for overcoming Company Y's huge lead in market share?
  
  A: Tell me about your development process.
  B: So what percentage of your process overhead is cargo cult edicts from upper management?
  
  A: How much runway do you have?  How long before profitability?
  B: When the current owners look for their exit, how screwed will I be?
  
  A: How do you deal with technical debt?
  B: Show me the worst code in your repo.

Exactly. If you're interviewing for a startup and you don't know what funding round they're on or how much runway they have, you're setting yourself up to get screwed.