I feel the crux is that there is no shortcut to success, any shortcut which is taken has to be compensated at a later part of your career. Example if you got funding without having product market fit, then you would have to justify that funding at one point on another.

One example of this is the current AI companies. Irrespective of how much marketing / hype that exists today, the long term question remains the same. Can they build a sustainable business ?