Did they know or did they have hopes that their first implementation could be improved upon? I'm open-minded they've done something fraudulent I just haven't seen the evidence
As TFM mentions, pico-projectors have been around for a while and have not improved (physics does not care how much you want it). Thus no sane non-scamer would "hope that their first implementation could be improved upon"
This company was not even in business of developing new laser display tech. So who would improve it for them? And why would they have not in the previous decades?