Plasma broke the current L1 model of needing a lot of venture dollars in order to build a quality L1. In total the team raised less money from venture investors than some large L1s raised in singular rounds. Community access via Sonar changed the game.

This is also why you see more confusion around the launch. There is not a large group of venture investors that made insane sums of paper cash from private rounds unlike most L1 launches. Plasma caught everyone in the venture realm off guard.