Your argument is spot on, however, Hyperloop is just a different game altogether. It is an infrastructure project and those projects are usually bankrolled by governments (local + federal funds). Even SapceX seems to be largely supported by NASA contracts.
The only large SV project I've heard about in recent time is Planetary Resources, the company that wants to mine asteroids. But, the returns for that expensive project would approach the 1000x that SV firms wish for.
Admittedly both of these projects are quite ambitious, but I have to think that delivering equipment to asteroids, maintaining that equipment while it works, and then returning the output of that work to Earth, seems much more involved than building and operating a 300-mile evacuated pipe on the Earth's surface.
The only large SV project I've heard about in recent time is Planetary Resources, the company that wants to mine asteroids. But, the returns for that expensive project would approach the 1000x that SV firms wish for.