This is just me speaking from experience with traditional web2 startup in Silicon Valley.
When the money is easy, a lot of silly ideas and weak/bloated teams get funded and their “vitamin” products can stay afloat.
Once the money becomes tight, only the “painkiller” products stay relevant and only the R&D teams that are truly lean and mean thrive.
The same thing can be applied to crypto.
You have painkiller products like DEX and Defi like Aave, compound, maker, Uni, and Curve etc… that are truly painkillers. These same teams if you check their true core dev headcounts, it’s only like less than half a dozen hardcore protocol devs, the rest of the team are marketing, misc frontend, etc…
Those kind of lean and mean teams will eat the competition in a bear environment. This isn’t an environment where you can afford to hire dozens of mediocre people and expect to survive.
Likewise, the protocol that survive has to solve a real problem and sustainably generate revenue without resorting to ponzi tokenomics.
It’s a better time than ever to be doing blockchain development for the small and nimble team. Someone else cannot outspend you with artificial bubble money anymore.