WHY THE MONEY IS ALREADY SPENT
Funds arrive one at a time into an account with no condition on it.
All-or-nothing crowdfunding solved this, correctly, for public campaigns with a platform and a public page. Between eleven people who know each other, none of that exists and neither does the protection.
The first contribution is spendable on arrival
There is no moment at which the money becomes available, because it was available the whole time. The organiser is not stealing, they are starting.
Nobody knows where the total stands
Only the organiser can see it, and only they know whether the gap is two million or twenty. Everyone else is deciding blind.
Asking is expensive
Requesting your money back from a friend who has begun buying equipment ends the friendship faster than losing it does. So people wait.
A failed pool has no ending
There is no point at which the arrangement is declared over and reversed. It simply becomes a thing nobody mentions.