Is it healthy? At one point the team was funded enough to create the api, and now it can only maintain it. What if it was never funded enough to create the api

Is it healthy? At one point the team was funded enough to create the api, and now it can only maintain it. What if it was never funded enough to create the api in the first place? I realize there's a risk of building complexity, but don't mistake "healthiness" for "inability".