Great set of points there @Sam_Stone. I too was greatly dismayed a couple months ago when Boom unveiled their “complete redesign”. My only reaction was “Were you lying to us then or are you lying to us now? The two configurations can’t possibly both be truthful.”
FYI we’ve got a more or less dedicated thread on these various supersonic wannabes over here:
The last few posts are all about the latest Boom news.
As to the 787's teething pains (and now ongoing growing pains) I'll quibble a bit.
The 787 as a machine was far more different under the paint job than it at first appears. It is quite a radical advancement over the immediately previous 777 in many ways.
And a LOT of the troublesome innovation was not in the materials / hardware / software of the machine itself, but in the industrial arrangements between all the companies that were building the chunks that go into it. A LOT of crappy management wishful thinking went into all that business and accounting chicanery. Much of which has since come home to roost.
But your larger point is still well-taken. Boom is trying to do something real hard, real fast, with rather little money. That’s usually a recipe for failure. Whether by design as an investor fleecing mechanism, or due to pure wishful thinking by a charismatic and hopelessly optimistic dreamer.