He raises a good point that the "barrier to entry" to creating even a side project is getting harder and harder for one person to attain in their spare time.

Nowadays an MVP needs to be fairly polished to be useful at all, and often needs to support multiple platforms. And, CRUCIALLY, if you're asking for people's money, there is an expectation of ongoing support. If the business is visibly a side project, clients will be unlikely to purchase from it over a competitor that has a dedicated team working on a similar product. How do your customers know that your side project will not disappear tomorrow?

I suspect there is a "chilling effect" that causes a sort of paralysis in developers who are not ready to release their side project unless it's "perfect," because they need to build the product well enough that it does not require constantly supporting customers, responding to help-desk tickets, etc. An MVP is not enough to get real customers on a side project, simply because the barebones nature of it will amplify the support costs, causing strain on the developer and taking time away from perfecting the product.