The other projects you allude to don't get their funding because most people who control budgets can only visualize the future with linear extrapolation.

You spend a LONG time in the low and flat part of your development before that starts to pick up, and up, and UP!

Homo Sapiens as a technology company were in the "fuck around with rocks" phase for 99% of their existence as a corporation. Agriculture in the final 1% of the development timeline allowed for industrialization in the final 0.05% of the time, which allowed for Large Language Models in the final 0.0001% of the time.

Had there been project managers and VPs in charge of deciding if our species was worth further investment, we'd have been canned in 800,000 BC.