The article points to some of the unknowns inherent in Star Citizen's funding and development--lots of people buying virtual goods for a game that's still half-promise is an unprecedented phenomenon, and for both Cloud Imperium and the people who bought into Star Citizen there is arguably a lot of risk here. If Star Citizen fails, it's possibly it will be in an entirely banal, trivial way. It comes out, it's not quite what people wanted out of the game, most people accept they hyped it up too much, we all move on with our lives. But the more people that pour thousands of dollars of their own money into the game, the less likely that scenario seems. Either it'll be amazing or it'll lead to a virtual riot.
That said: the headline on that story is garbage. A year and a half ago, you could've just as easily said "Activision and Bungie spend $XX million dollars on buggy, half-built game." A few years back you could've said "Rockstar spends $XX million dollars on buggy, half-built game." The only reason "buggy and half-built" is even remotely valid as a criticism is because technically, the Kickstarter stated a delivery date of November 2014, but nearly everyone understands the release date has been pushed back. In the meantime, there's a tentative development/release roadmap and actual functioning modules you can play that showcase fundamental pieces of the gameplay.