The HGI was a 40 year project. Whole careers were planned. One man with an alternate idea killed the lifetime career plans of many thousands of people in abut three years with a better idea that of course was rejected as impossible. Yes, Craig Venter was a mighty unpopular fellow. But now he and his privately funded company showed the way to relatively inexpensive and rapid DNA sequencing of whole genomes. And those scientists still managed to spend their 40 year budget in what maybe four or five years?