I'm not sure why this is controversial; Mojo Nation was doing this in 2001 and there have been tons of papers on the advantages of erasure coded storage. Maybe some people are really attached to their PoRep algorithms though.
I agree, but it is for some reason! Over a quarter billion in ICO money (filecoin) was raised on proof of replication.
I would say the money was raised on the team. If they're smart they can pivot away from PoRep and no one will notice.
Author here - happy to answer questions or discuss this further!