It seems strange to me that they'd want that rather than finding out up-front before they spent a much greater amount of money actually building something which might be rejected.

They do want that. The guys didn't want blid acceptance, just doing this in stages so that they can focus on the things that might need improvement.

Yes, exactly. I'm trying to figure out how I could have communicated better, since so many people here are so wildly misinterpreting what I wrote.