Star Citizen is a great example of how subjective all this is. Features have been delivered that most game developers would not even attempt. If your primary goal is smooth, polished, predictable progress then your scope and potential features will be more limited. In the case of Star Citizen it has a large player base even at the current extended alpha state.

I'd assume it has a lot to do with decisions made at the top (see track record): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Roberts_(video_game_deve... (Disclaimer: I don't know the guy's management techniques or specifics, it's just a guess)

Crowdfunding is great when no VC will fund your track record. But it leads to even less incentive to produce a ROI. You can see evidence of this same pattern in the crypto ICO wave of 2017, where the business endgame was usually the raise, not the exit.

Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule. Star Citizen is definitely an outlier.