You're probably right.
At an early stage it is quite difficult to understand which project will really develop its brainchild and which one will abandon all development immediately after fundraising.
It seems to me that now the market of NFT and metaverses reminds the ICO hype in 2017, when every second project was a scam.
Rather, every 99 out of 100 were scams. Now the situation is the same, but many projects are afloat only thanks to the hype. As soon as the real bear market begins, we will make sure that 99 projects out of 100 are either a scam or just an unsuccessful/unprofitable project.
If you do not have a direct connection with the team, then entering at any stage is a risk. If you enter early, then the risk is that the project will not even begin to develop, and if it's too late, then the risk is that all X's have already been made and it will collapse. By the way, what specific project turned out to be profitable for you and saved the day?