lkhAL

Absolutely. If it isn't hidden, the developers will have to deal with management, credit taking, metrics, attempts to squash the project, jealousy from other employees, unreasonable pressure (surely a browser can be written in 3 months ...) and being treated as a cost center.

All this would happen even if backed by Larry.

It is a miracle that new projects happen at all in companies, though Google of course actually bought many successful projects.