Are Customers the Losers in the Startup Game?

With Groupon's acquisition of Pelago:

http://www.groupon.com/blog/cities/groupon-acquires-pelago/

And the quick closure of Whrrl, I get the sense from reading the email that Pelago sees this as a victory because they got their exit, and that's cool.

http://cl.ly/2a1V1v2E022H2r0t393X (the email)

But what about the people like me or you that invested time in this service and helped them build it? Why even bother if we're only pawns in the acquisition game?

Why bother being an early adopter at all? It just doesn't feel right to me.