Actually, marketing hype is not really what drove the VLJ push from the beginning. It was a product of a joint collaboration of NASA, the FAA, and the general aviation industry to sell smaller airplanes as an alternative to Part 121 commercial air transportation. Does SATS ring a bell? SATS was the NASA program to establish shorter-segment air travel away from the overused commercial airspace, instead using the local GA airport and VLJs to move small numbers of people.
See SATS (Wikpedia),
SATS (NASA). Eclipse and about two dozen other startup aircraft manufacturers, many using only garages at first, thought it was a great idea to make a small jet and altogether they threw literally billions into making the VLJ come of age. When you consider how many designs made it to the prototype stage and then later went belly up, Eclipse is a rather successful airplane. In fact, Eclipse is on the short list for VLJs that will actually survive the VLJ bust. It is very hard to bring a new airplane to the marketplace. So even if the EA500 has some weaknesses, and I am sure it does, it is a very good design and will eventually be one of a very few of these smaller jets to have made it to production. If the economy turns around I think there is a very good chance that Eclipse Aerospace, the latest incarnation of Eclipse Aviation, will survive and stay around. They even have a single engine V-tailed model they are eager to produce. Cut them some slack, their airplane is not far from what it was intended to be.