I agree with the article that it won't happen because it's just natural to hire your way out of some pain.

You'd need someone who cares enough to make a point to a very niche community but doesn't care about the product enough to hire, and I think the two circles don't overlap.

... but if it did happen I expect it'd be a NSFW AI chatbot/companion, not VC-backable (or at least not openly)

There are some people building those that don't want or care about building the best product: they've realized if you get the cheapest most heavily quanitzed model around to produce NSFW content and tell a lonely person they're loved, they'll give you increasing amounts of money.