This. They did excellent internal work, decided it's not for them, but did something good and want to share it. Just because it's not profitable for them doesn't mean it was a waste - they can use their new knowledge in other areas.

Que? Isn't "don’t see how it’s a market fit" just startup speak for "it's not economically viable"? That would fall squarely into the category of design failures I was talking about. It's not like we don't know any mechanism to cause condensation from air.

It's not economically viable with their usual profit margin, on a market large enough to pay for their fixed costs, with the suppliers and labor they have around, and a lot of other constraints.

That doesn't mean it's useless for everybody. So they publishing it may improve somebody's life.

Lowering cost by manufacturing at scale is knowledge they don't have, and they do need to make it financially viable. Other people might have it and make it viable.