I fully agree with your points about the benefit of smaller, focused teams in creating groundbreaking pieces of work. Though I don’t think all DAO’s will necessarily be open to any-and-all contributors. And certainly the most important projects within a DAO can be assigned to those with the most merit. In other words, a DAO doesn’t need to be a victim of ‘Group Think’ if organized properly.
The other thing to consider is that the successful companies you’re thinking of, who were founded by incredibly talented visionaries and engineers, are the exception and not the rule. Most startups fail, and it’s often because too much decision-making responsibility is put into the hands of one or two people, who aren’t always the leading expert in all aspects of their business.
I believe that we’ll start to draw comparisons between DAO’s and sports teams. Basketball is probably the best example of a sport where a team can rely too heavily on their star players for production. A 1-man team may win some games during the regular season, but rarely gets to the promised land because they run into teams with better chemistry. An unselfish team that plays to their strengths can usually overcome a team with a better star player.