Yes KickStarter is the online equivalent to that claw game at the arcade. No that doesn't mean great titles can't come from it as a result. It's just very unlikely and you'd better have a shitton of tokens.
It is interesting though, the fact that the same people responsible for a game (EQ) that was notorious for being a pita, are themselves now having a pita time trying create a new game that will essentially be a pita.
It's likely that a large number of potential players have lost or will probably lose interest with Pantheon and play other games in the interim, similar to the way a lot of players gave up on EQ the first time they logged on and died. But imo the majority of them will return eventually when/if Pantheon is fleshed out, just like the majority of first-time EQ players eventually logged back on after taking an extended break because, even though it fucked with your emotions and required a lot of time and effort, eventually there were moments in EQ where all of that was worth it. Right now it's just a matter of grinding through the timesink and seeing if Pantheon will level up beyond the newbie yard or die and never get a rez.
TL;DR
Get facts. Too early for facts? Do something more productive with your time than speculating, or otherwise risk becoming what CNN was when covering the missing Malaysian Airliner --
ridiculous.