>They want all the upsides and none of the downsides to throwing millions at people.
I see what you're getting at, but this is a bit of a silly statement. The obvious downside of "throwing millions at people" is that you lose millions of dollars.
It's not a right to have a guaranteed return on an investment. It isn't silly at all. They literally only want a single downside (losing their initial investment), absolving themselves of all responsibility for their investments while retaining maximum return in the event such a return on investment happens. They will also do everything they can, a la various modes of propaganda, to manipulate avoiding that single downside as well.
The startup culture that has fetishized making it big at all costs (move fast and break things) has lead to customer (and non-customer) deaths amongst several other massive failures. The investors should have some responsibility and accountability assigned. Right now, they have zero.
I see what you're getting at, but this is a bit of a silly statement. The obvious downside of "throwing millions at people" is that you lose millions of dollars.