My head is kinda think in' that it's a good and bad news type thing...in conjunction with Prog's words, Peachy's words, and this super amazing secret announcement that will "change the meta game".
So let's imagine that Nintendo shuts down Project M. Sucks and all. Yeah it'd be lame but...I'm getting the feeling all the invitational invitees are in on this, but Zero took the opportunity to give himself more (bad) publicity.
In turn, Nintendo is actually hiring them (both the project m team members and the high profile invitees) on part-time or commission-based pay to play test, balance, and work with the developers on all the nitty gritty either before release, or periodically after release in the form of balance patches.
It would surely be a shame to see Project M shut down but can you imagine how much good that would do for Smash 4? We wouldn't even need Project M anymore, as long as those players give the input we'd trust them to give.