The problem is the opportunity cost of time. If a talented technical founder could make $200K per year working somewhere else, then the opportunity cost of building that company (after 2.5 years and with 3 founders) is $1.5M.

It may not be a failure from the ecosystem / societal perspective because a new idea was tested and discovered to have some value to the world, but the company ended up being worth $0. The founders are now saddled with a bunch of debt.

It's like you go all-in on a poker hand, and then lose to a better hand. Did you lose? Yes. What if you had fun playing? It's still a loss.