That’s my main problem with these types of scenarios. The initial buy-in would have to be such a fervor of ideological blindness to the situation.

absolutely. the typical founders not only didn't have the skills/knowledge and willingness to provide the labor time necessary to provide basic vegetables for themselves during the growing season, they didn't understand the problem from an organizational standpoint enough to even create a structure to induce someone with the needed skills to contribute.

they were just fools with lots of money and the deep, gene-level certainty that having money means you know what you're doing and that you're right. little barons with little fiefs, only they don't offer justice or protection.

at a very minimum the organization would/should be developed into a legal entity, probably a trust, with an electable committee and bylaws that prevent obvious nepotism/tyrannies, worker exploitation, etc. but at that point, you're basically just mirroring a smaller, less publicly accountable version of incorporating as a community under state regulation that is likely to have some kind of loophole in it where somebody with a lawyer can come along, scrutinize its legal documents, and void/absorb it into a corporate dictatorship.