I think RethinkDB's marketing was excellent. The unchecked praise you mention is likely in no small part also a result of this.
However I don't think that means the technology was the problem. There are far more broken and misarchitected pieces of technology that are financially successful.
What exactly went wrong is speculative until we see the insights Slava promised, but it seems the failure was entirely financial: they had a great product, they brilliantly marketed it, but that didn't translate into sustainable revenue.
I think RethinkDB's marketing was excellent. The unchecked praise you mention is likely in no small part also a result of this.
However I don't think that means the technology was the problem. There are far more broken and misarchitected pieces of technology that are financially successful.
What exactly went wrong is speculative until we see the insights Slava promised, but it seems the failure was entirely financial: they had a great product, they brilliantly marketed it, but that didn't translate into sustainable revenue.