Well, if you have too many, you've done an unregistered securities offering and the SEC will come after you. At 35 investors, the rules change. Read up on Regulation D.
Why is it unfathomable to imagine someone with a $500K NW writing a $5k-20k cheque?
To be accredited you either need $1M NW or sustained $200K income (2+ years). Leaves plenty of room for small-time angels who want to invest 1-4% of their net wroth
People putting out $50K cheques in 'very risky' things for strangers businesses very much likely to fit the criteria for accredited.
Maybe your 'Uncle' might do this, but it's generally not a concern that you're going to have that many of them that it's going to force you to go public. Also, you can vet for it by asking the question.
The most active funding platform for this is Wefunder.[2] This is sort of like Kickstarter, but with equity.
[1] https://www.sec.gov/info/smallbus/secg/rccomplianceguide-051...
There were some other rules changes this year that make it easier, though I can't find documentation of what they are atm. I've noticed more use of SPVs which simplifies things for the company.
The main problem with this is it's a bad idea for most investors because the investment opportunities are largely bad and take 6+ years to get any return.
My point about "zero bearing" stands. I'll repeat the concept differently: be careful if you have any non-accredited investors on your cap-table; there is a greater-than-zero chance it can affect the next deal(s).
Sometimes it's a joke, but other times it is quite fitting.
And maybe that investor group makes many SPV, so each player is making 10, $10k plays rather one $100k play
Islamic banking goes in the other direction, though. In the US, anybody can loan money to anybody. Islam prohibits interest. "Loans" in Islamic banking are more like preferred stock, or a setup where the principal is loaned but anything beyond that is more like an equity stake.