Actually, the research data suggests that Kickstarter's efforts to make self-funding (making up the difference) difficult do seem to be working.
Quoting Prof. Mollick's paper: "...the percentage funded of failed projects remain very similar for smaller projects (mean .149, SD .18 for projects under $1,000) and relative larger ones (mean .101, SD .14 for projects over $1,000). We would expect that, if self-funding was the reason that few projects were moderate failures, that cheaper projects would be more easily self-funded, and therefore would have a lower, not higher, mean percentage funded for failed projects, since relatively larger funding gaps would still be cheap to self-fund."
Quoting Prof. Mollick's paper: "...the percentage funded of failed projects remain very similar for smaller projects (mean .149, SD .18 for projects under $1,000) and relative larger ones (mean .101, SD .14 for projects over $1,000). We would expect that, if self-funding was the reason that few projects were moderate failures, that cheaper projects would be more easily self-funded, and therefore would have a lower, not higher, mean percentage funded for failed projects, since relatively larger funding gaps would still be cheap to self-fund."