The “problem” (as I see it) is that for a number of projects:
- The grants program is not a good fit
- no money up front
- limited funding tiers
- less confidence for recipients about runway
- Traditional investors (angels, VCs) are not a good fit
- See Jordan’s comments from above:
More generally, these also have processes that are decided by centralized entities and depend on a smaller number of people when compared to the broader community.
As for why people haven’t heard that more projects are in need of funding;
My experience is that asking people for money is already quite a humbling experience. I can only speculate that people who have tried and have not yet been successful are concerned with how that looks to other potential investors.
Recently I became aware of some projects that are in this situation and other people have independently had similar conversations with different teams.