The VC metaphor has been kicked around in discussions of the crowdfunding model for years now. The comparison breaks down pretty quickly- for a VC with an equity stake (and management control or influence) the upside is practically unlimited. In the crowdfunding world, the upsides is hard capped... a keyboard.
I've known or met people involved in the venture capital industry, and they are very, very savvy in their specific domains, very sharp, very demanding. People buying into group buys are not doing backround checks on the organisers, they are not asking questions about past performance and projects. Seems to me that most GB participants are unambitious optimists willing to throw money into the ether for a chance at an interesting trinket. That's certainly how I view my own rare engagements with Indiegogo or Kickstarter.
I agree that we're not seeing a price premium in group buys in terms of project risk, but that's because the market is not pure supply and demand. A lot of organisers don't seem to be in it for the money- they are not trying to build sustainable long term businesses. I suspect (and I could be talking out my ass here as I have no experience with this) that price is set mostly be production costs (CNC production is horribly inefficient, non-scalable and expensive) and also by what the regular/respected organisers are pricing at. There's simply enough demand that newcomers can set similar prices and still garner interest.
I don't think that there is artificial scarcity- again, CNC is inherently limiting. And because organisers are not running full time businesses, they are not set up to handle thousands of keyboard cases.
I also think that the idea of information asymmetry isn't applicable. Information asymmetry is more likely where there are a small number of highly dominant, highly organised firms and a market of relatively powerless buyers. With keyboards, there's a bunch of small scale organisers operating in in their spare time. The don't disclose their manufacturers or production costs, but this stuff isn't valuable information- you could go to somwhere like 3dhubs.com for comparable machine costs, and there are lots of PCB printing companies that will quote you.
Information on other current group buys is freely available, as is history of past buys. I think the only thing missing is that many buyers don't really ask hard questions, or factor in project risk. Maybe because they're naive in some cases, or maybe because several hundred dollars isn't considered a big enough amount to risk in the first place, it could just be play money. I'm a tight bastard, so I this kind of thinking is foreign to me, but I do suspect that this is play money for a lot of people.
The hype point I have no thoughts on... I don't do social media, and have no idea how keyboards are hyped these days. I'm curious as to why most people would find them objects worth of desire though, most people just aren't that geeky, and my interest in keyboards is a subject of amused tolerance within my own circles.