It is possible that what you said can come true about the DAO being DOA. But it holds true to all crypto/token/coin ICOs that have been done before.
We have to remind ourselves that technology is just a tool. The success and failure of DAO will ultimately lie on how well this tool is used. While a crowd is usually "dumb" in making a colletive decision, it is also the reason why a wise "figure-head" can sway the crowd towards success or growth. The best example is ETHEREUM itself, where Vitalik Buterin "inspires" the ETH holders and more investors to get into ETH while there is no current "practical" and easy use of ETH nowadays.
I believe that there is a big chance of DAO slumping for a while until the numbers are trimmed to the bare thinkers, which are wise enough to separate the "waste of time" to the potential success ventures. Again much like ETH..where it touched a very low point then later on rose to where it is today.
We can compare DAO to real life cooperative companies. Many cooperatives were founded with good funding and still they failed while some which are not that well funded, fared well and until today are standing successfully with exponential growths. DAO while being composed of "smart contracts" will still depend on the people involved with them.
We are all taking part in history today. Whether as actors or spectators, it is nice that we can express our expectations today and see what come of it in the near future. Personally, I would take part in the effort of improving the people who would wield this mighty tool we call DAO.
I would say the difference between The DAO and everything that has gone before is that The DAO doesn't have a defined objective other than to fund other projects. Ethereum, BitShares, Mastercoin, and even Slock.it all have relatively defined purpose and the people buying into those projects are making individual investment decisions.
The DAO is the first DAO that expects people to give up their individual control in favor of community control. In the spirit of protecting individual control The DAO allows splitting. This splitting and/or selling out of The DAO will be the preferred method.
After all, given 3 projects that get funded by The DAO, chances are you only care about/believe in 1 of them. But by participating inThe DAO you get exposed to all three. By not participating in The DAO you can focus your investment dollars on the projects you most believe in.