Reading the comments by that CEO in the email exchanges is fascinating. This sounds like a wannabe Musk or Jobs who was so dazzled by their accomplishments that he took one isolated ingredient of their success and resorted to magical thinking - i.e. that "Think Different" mantra is in itself sufficient to overcome the limits of established methodologies in an industry.

Quite a picture lesson for entrepreneurs in real world application technologies. You can't just put faith in the pursuit of "innovation", and innovate your way out of the laws of nature, especially physics. Nature is in fact a fickle bitch when you try to skimp on these kinds of things.

The now dead customers also don't get a pass for skimping on due diligence of the product they were sold. Charmed by CEO charisma while deluded by their own assumed invincible adventurous lives, I'm guessing.