One interesting note was that a Dxpedition guy who has done 38 Dxpeditions was saying that he thinks this is going to have a serious impact on future funding.
I've heard this from a couple of folks already, also with DXpedition experience. It will also cause a lot of regular folks to hold back donations ahead of time and only donate after a completely successful trip. For many years that was the policy my club took but we changed it a few years ago for the VP8s and FT5ZM, and now, at my insistence, for Bouvet. We donated $500 to this trip, and many of our members donated more on their own, myself included. I think some of our members may not have been too happy, but I hope saner heads can keep our future donations flowing ahead of time.
He said that he fears that going forward this may cause sponsors to start to include clauses that state if you don't deliver X, Y and Z as you promised you will have to refund back a proportional amount of cash back to the sponsors.
I don't think that's reasonable, quite frankly. If future team leaders can satisfy sponsors' concerns about their proposed operating plans and contingencies, and they still wish to provide material or financial support that's on them. If Plan B is "we'll wing it," well maybe XYZ antennas or ABC amplifiers might have second thoughts.