People are shocked because the only reason kickstarter is a big deal is that most of the audience has absolutely no familiarity with VCs and startup failures. They are normal people who see "$75 - receive Thing" and absurdly, strangely, interpret that as "I give you $75 you give me Thing". If Kickstarter wasn't a store then they wouldn't allow projects to list prices next to the products they are selling, all reward levels would be "stickers!" and not the successful project. And I bet all the self-righteous jerks who say "I don't even expect to get anything when I back a project!" would instantly stop backing projects, once they actually couldn't expect to get anything for being a backer.