This being said, I was under the impression that funding a project is still a bit of a risk - I'd expect that some projects (like businesses) simply don't work out how they planned - this seems like that type of problem. Of course they should have mentioned the signal problems (and even reached out to see if they could crowd source a solution) but buying in as an early "funder" would imply that there is a risk that it doesn't work, in my opinion.
Seems like they simply couldn't deliver on the project, glad that it's only happened to him once in 72 times.