I bought my first Gridcoin in late 2014 and had to go through the coin conversion process to get it into the GRC we know today. I had no idea if my money would be entirely lost, think about that for a second, would you do that?
I ran a researching node since that time and I can tell you it wasn't all plain sailing, the process we have people saying is difficult today is child's play compared to back then, the coin is so much more secure and tamper proof due to years of experimentation and development.
The people who invested time and money back then, who left their respective BOINC teams to join Gridcoin while it was still a very small project, and have held their GRC through massive price rises helped to create Gridcoin as it exists today.
I'm not a 'whale', I do have a pretty significant coin holding though, but I'm invested in Gridcoin far more than money, my heart is in the project because I believe it can do great things. The idea that people think I treated them unfairly I find very distasteful, there are no secrets in Gridcoin history, it's all open book.