But some people did - Andy Bechtolsheim, David Sheriton, Ram Shriram, Ron Conway, Sequoia & KPCB. And given their track record on other investments, I don't think this was due to pure chance.
I'd posit that people like the investors mentioned above have a highly intuitive "pattern matching" system for finding promising startups. The lack of any one quality won't disqualify a startup; rather, they can unconsciously evaluate the whole startup as a package and decide whether it's likely to be a winner.
Hence, the win of probabilistic AI systems over rule-based ones.
I think you overestimate the prescience of these investors. They are probably very good at increasing their chances by investing in a lot of stuff and letting the winners run.
I'd posit that people like the investors mentioned above have a highly intuitive "pattern matching" system for finding promising startups. The lack of any one quality won't disqualify a startup; rather, they can unconsciously evaluate the whole startup as a package and decide whether it's likely to be a winner.
Hence, the win of probabilistic AI systems over rule-based ones.