The Eclipse was an aviation version of Mr Ponzi. It was an appalling example of business ethics, never mind gross technological mismanagement where you bet on several then-nonexistent horses at the same time. I dare say most of the deposit holders were people who could easily afford to lose the money (they had better be) but things like delivering the plane with a Garmin 496 for navigation was just a finger-up to any kind of civilised behaviour. I think what Raburn did simply stinks and the fact that so many bought into his scheme does not excuse that. You can always con people with a polished enough proposal; a relative of mine has lost much of her savings in
this.
The TBM carved out a nice niche because it delivered a capability which was much desired and which didn't exist. It still doesn't exist now, all those years later.