I want to judge the devs for it but if a VC walked up to me with a bag full of cash and the opportunity to work full time on a passion project I can’t be anywhere near sure I’d say no.
That bag full of cash will keep being a bag full of cash but the passion project will likely become driven by whoever hands you the bag and will head towards their goals, not yours. Anyway you'll keep the cash. It's not different from what the vast majority of us do with our jobs every day.