Lee Smolin's grievances are motivated by a greater concern than simply lack of funding for loop quantum gravity, his primary topic of research. The main problem

Lee Smolin's grievances are motivated by a greater concern than simply lack of funding for loop quantum gravity, his primary topic of research. The main problem is the unjustified (given the lack of falsifiable predictions, lack of proper formulation, lack of unique solutions) and unprecedented (given the proportion of string theorists in top-level research institutions) focus on string theories in the current environment. It's about the fate of a discipline, not simply about "not enough funding." See his book The Trouble with Physics for a more passionate defense. I do agree that the answer to "why no Einsteins" is more complicated that Lee Smolin suggests, though I doubt any of (a)-(e) are true, except maybe (a).