Some popular neoclassical economic models rely on the “No-Ponzi-Scheme” condition being true. Essentially meaning that Capital can’t become negative because there are no ponzi schemes which affect the economy.

This seems like that assumption is just one of the wrong ones.

You’re right on the spot with media reporting on this.

To be fair the vast majority of scientists will take other factors into account. If you thought of “this could also be because of that” then you can be sure that the scientists and the ones reviewing the publication also thought about it and addressed it. There are exceptions, sure, but don’t just assume everyone is bad at their job.

They will actively contribute while growing their userbase. When they hit critical mass they will cutoff the fediverse and take their users and their content with them. It happened before.