Karin's crowdfund said they would develop the Synth V and CeVIO voicebanks regardless of how close they get to the goal! Meaning they already have or could raise the funds to make the voicebanks themselves (and have in fact already paid to start making them, hence the demos). Only the Pitagoe's existence depends on the crowdfund, with the rest being a glorified pre-order. After Genbu's crowdfund was cancelled, Virvox say they would find a way to fund it themselves, suggesting that they did not actually need the community's financial support. This makes Synth V crowdfunds appear less essential to the creation of voicebanks than fans previously thought.
Karin being funded no matter what has less to do with her receiving Kanru's Stamp of Approval and more to do with TOKYO6 having both the funds and the full backing of AHS. With VirVox, while they're still intent on making him happen, that doesn't imply they already have all the funds they need or actually have a means to make it happen in the near future. Not being able to crowdfund him for SynthV AI has definitely put a dent in those plans. They were prepared to launch the crowdfunder ASAP, and now they're focusing on other tasks, meaning Genbu's AI bank, and any method of crowdfunding or general funding they might seek, are on the backburner. And for a more Western take, remember Solaria: her company was willing to fund her however they could, whether or not the crowdfund was successful, but had it not been successful, would she have been an immediate guarantee? The reason we're 100% getting Solaria next year is because of people who contributed, not because Kanru's team or anyone associated with SynthV itself paid out-of-pocket (while they ultimately
did have some external funding, it only accounted for a small portion of the final funding).
Not wanting to contribute to Karin's crowdfunder because she'll happen either way is perfectly valid! But it's unfair to say
all SynthV crowdfunders are unessential, or at least minimally essential. What's true for the development of some VBs won't be true for others. VBs pre-approved to seek development/funding come from a variety of different companies with a variety of financial standings. That's something worth keeping in mind.