FWIW, Blockstream has raised 3-4x (over $300 million, not counting the round the did late last year) what they have. I don't think VC money has much to do with it, given all the other teams have VC money (other than Spiral since they're the research arm of public company).

I hear that keysend anecdote a lot, but keysend is pretty simple. It's just putting the pre-image in the onion, couldn't imagine it was terribly arduous to workout.