well for me I'd rather they spend time and the funding they have working on the engine, and not a game.
You did not understand what they meant. It is easier to see problems, bottlenecks, workflow issues and show stoppers or the power of the scene management, if you make a game. It does not have to be a pretty game, but it should be a complete game project.
But if you only check one feature separated then it might give a wrong picture.
But I am sure that Conitec has some kind of a playground project. Or they just test some of the projects of their customers.
GarageGames has a pile of games they are working on. And they have some affiliates working on quite ambitious projects. And they do some optimizing and testing on several hardware to support even weaker systems for T3D.
Like LordMoggy already mentioned. It is all a matter of money and team size.
