Glad to see you went ahead and registered 🙂 and we appreciate that informative feedback.
I assume the other project that “Ned already threw his backing” is the Steem DAO? It’s a completely different project, with different goals and therefore it’s not a competitor to this foundation. Ned is committed to this foundation, as he always has been, feel free to message and ask him if you need to. The foundation does need to be designed to not fully depend on Ned of course.
For more information on what the expense of the DAO is or what it’s going to, please see their blog.