The biggest problem for me was that he didn't explain why the project needed $150k. From the (granted, simplistic) explanation, it sounded like something that could be built in Flash in a couple of months.
Most of the work went into the simulation, not the UI. That's why it looks like it could be done simply in flash. (BTW I used JSF, with JQuery and CSS, but that does not matter so much). He has been working on this project for well over a year, and has blogged his work: http://erasmatazz.com/TheLibrary/GameDesign/DesignDiaryBotP/...
