Well .. I want to argue and offer the following two points:

1 - proposed solution uses optical nerve that already in place, it is a legit way for BCI when talking about vision (as in eyes)... invasive way would still end up replacing optic nerve and in that sense would be anyway more efficient.

2 - this idea of invasive is very silo / extrapolation of today's tech, what if in 20 years what we would end up actually using would be a bunch of nano machines that work in the brain and then send / receive signals as an interface, it would be completely different from Neurolink approach as well, we should not get fixated on invasive vs non invasive we should fixate on the quality of solution.

I agree fully. I can't believe that we can ever achieve something like Sword Art Online without non-invasive methods. Everything else is just waste of time.

What about OpenWater (which claims to have very high res non-invasive scanning technology but has yet to show their technology publicly)?

Hey jackass, these non invasive studies aren’t helping people with medical conditions or anything. Sometimes you need to start with “non invasive” to learn and integrate that intel into your actual invasive biohardware that can kill or torment your consciousness if the scientist is fucking stupid and lacks intel from previous computer labs. That money isn’t being wasted, it’s not only helping that company/team but the rest of the worlds scientist (AI too) to reflect back on that paper.