My association over the years is on the technical side rather than the corporate financial, so the funding drivers I'll have to defer to you on. You'll have a better handle than me based on your financial background.

On the engineering side, though, I will say there is a difference between "failed" tech and developing tech. The heat mitigation tech is and has been clearly the latter, new materials, new approaches, yeah, even "better glue".

This is an extremely difficult problem, one of the most significant limitations to spacecraft survivability. For the best thermal deformation behaviour in these ranges, non-monolithic shielding such as tile are here to stay (at least for the foreseeable future) as the best solution.