The typical immigrant investor was not starting Google, a genomics lab, a 3D printing business, or anything even vaguely innovative.
The US International Entrepreneur Rule is more like the "Start Up Visa" [1] that was introduced in Canada a few years ago, which allows entry for founders of a business supported by local venture capital or incubators (subject to certain monetary amounts and conditions).
A major difference: the Canadian start-up visa gives immediate permanent residence, rather than a number of years of temporary status with no guaranteed route forward.
[1] http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/
(Do they need to pass the point-based qualification as well to get the visa in the first place?)
For the US, small business investor-entrepreneurs typically use an E-2 visa but it is non-immigrant and they need to leave the country when the business stops operating.