@barty
I should say, I'm not a scientist - just an amateur with some scientific education and quite a lot of engineering lab experience.
But, do you think LENR would get much funding if funders listen to people like me? I agree it would have been safer to fund Rossi a little while trying to get clearer evidence. But, to some extent they did that.
I can't see that they are much to blame from their standpoint of thinking that LENR was almost certainly real. They took a brave risk. It is very easy to be wise after the fact.