So you think it'd have the same chances of success if it didn't involve crypto? Of course not! Yes the point is it's crypto, it's experimenting with new ways of doing things, and that's what people want to be a part of.
And, honestly, I get that. There's nothing wrong with wanting to participate in something new. But nobody should be deceived into thinking that DAOs are really creating any important new capabilities here.
> The most obvious would be to sell shares in a corporation or LLC
Well certainly you can do it faster with crypto. How long would it take to set up the corporation / LLC? How quickly / easily could people buy shares? Could anyone buy shares?
Yes there are more risks this way, but I don't think there are zero benefits to the crypto approach.
You dont even need to sell shares, just a contract which entitles you to a vote or a future share of the company.
And it's not as though setting up a DAO is easier. Both require either a substantial amount of domain-specific knowledge, or trust in general purpose tools/forms.
Can we think of a a similar case where the crypto speed benefit would be meaningful?
Edit: Your question about who can buy shares raises an interesting issue. It may be true that, if you did this in the traditional way, you could only sell shares to accredited investors. (I'm not sure. But that's my hunch.) But I wouldn't be so sure that these same rules don't apply to DAOs. It may be a complex legal question, and I haven't researched it, but I would certainly not assume that these solicitation rules don't apply to soliciting contributions to DAO's. After all, the same regulatory goal applies: preventing amateur investors from getting scammed, or taking on more risk than they had intended, through private-placement style investments where there are fewer market signals to help people make informed decisions. (Of course, it's a separate question whether we should have laws like that in the first place.)