Not only they got publicity and kick-starter funding they even got cobtracts from local government! And there are copycats also with government money. Can some

Not only they got publicity and kick-starter funding they even got cobtracts from local government! And there are copycats also with government money. Can someone explain this to me a bit? How one manages to not only promote such an obvious flawed idea to implement, but actually inspore others to copy them? Are there any lesson to learn from that for projects that actually work?