From my perspective, I invested for software gain and Linus invested for software and monetary gain. Sometimes investments don't pay off, but I believed and still believe in the direction enough to risk it.
As a software developer myself, learning is part of the journey, so it's actually a good sign they are forthcoming with what they learnt and have the confidence to continue, IMO.
As long as there is progress being made, it's just a matter of enough before resources run out.