I don't think this is true given the likely relative participation rates. Unless a large stakeholder sets the Refund standard particularly high, it's very likely that any faction able to drum up support on a one-time basis will be able to fund a proposal, simply because most witness voters aren't here all the time. (And if the Refund standard is particularly high it likely precludes all non-blockchain-development projects entirely. Perhaps it would be good to have separate pools.)

Consider 50% curation as an example. Given the support it has been shown, it's almost certain this could gather enough stake to vote into the development queue. Yet we thankfully aren't particularly close to a supermajority of witnesses supporting it. But if code development were funded and finished, it would essentially lock that faction into place, never allowing them to move on and leading to permanent conflict over the issue.