This wasn't crypto mining.
But this was permanently spending money of the participants on electric power and on their hardware lifespan, like in every such volunteer calculations project,
The importance of this study results looks like "Please, stay online. Your call is very important for us....
Btw, store the data at your own hardware. Who knows, what if we need it decades later.
What do you say? Moore's law? Never heard about it...
Ah, you mean that two decades ago, when the project started, computers were much weaker,.. So what took hours then, now takes just minutes and could be counted in a year instead of a decade...
What? Twenty years later a quantum computer will calculate this in seconds? Come on, just relax and listen, how important your work is!"
At least, this doesn't look like usual "Calculate this biochemical data for all humanity for your money, and later buy this medicine from us for your money again."
Crypto miners just honestly eat your money and hide.
Voluteered calc is not bad per se, but if it doesn't bring visible results in a year and is not available for free, it's either not free, or just spends your money on pixel art drawing with mouse in Paint instead of using Photoshop five years later.
"Crowdfunding? Crowd, fund!"