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If I wanted to do something that was really really important to me, and the only way I could think of to do it was to ask my friends to give me money, and I finally got the courage to ask them, would I do so with a plan for repayment? Perhaps a personal one, but not one I'd make public or use for making any kind of promise. And actually, I don't think it makes sense that it would ever be repaid in kind (money). This is not an "investment" - that seems to be something you can't fully accept.
Have you not seen the gofundme requests that are for holidays and the like? Are you confusing it with justgiving?
"soliciting"-> asking, "exploiting" -> giving without expectation, "unethical" -> seems to be back to the asking.
It's worth also considering that not only has the ask been transparent - no false promises given, and doesn't target any individual, but many of us know BRP to some extent either online or IRL, and really we can make up our own minds whether we want to freely give him money or not. It's a nice thing, if that makes you uncomfortable maybe reconsider why.