30k is 0.01% of 300m, or 1 part in 10,000. It was also just a small part of 900k of grants given out to many different works.

This is how art grants work. They are tiny - in the 10k to 50k range, a few thousand are given out. Some of these artists produce great works and some don't. But it's cheap as heck compared to other things, and if we spend nothing on art, we don't get any great art. Are you also one of those people that hates federal arts funding?

Btw HPMOR is also pretty good. Harvard probably spent more than 30k on their sign and got a lot less.