Author here. I felt the same way when I joined. Gaia and the decentralized identity work were genuinely interesting, and the early developer community was real, with people building things and giving honest feedback. That's what made the shift frustrating to watch from the inside.

I'd refine "lost their way" slightly: the incentive structure was always going to produce this outcome once the token became the primary funding mechanism. The team didn't lose direction; the path was bent by the economics.