I think you are thinking more of defense contracting than darpa.

Also, darpa has real use-cases and those use-cases tend to be hard to solve ones, they aren't VCs looking for the next trend to vampire like a national security version of the TV show shark tank.

Granted, it is 2023, it is the govt, and it is tech/eng/sci holy trinty of profit so I wouldn't be shocked if I am off the mark with my assessment.