I like your style. I am really glad that you have the resources to go it alone, against the zeitgeist.
I don't think any big VC will take you up on your advice though. VCs don't work in vacuum, they need to exit at one point, and they need something that is sexy to sell at that point. AI/ML is sexy, and will be for at least the next 5-10 years.
BTW, my advice to you is to be careful that the zeitgeist does not get you. Even when you want to hire a dev-ops guy, you need to sell the guy a vision. And if the vision is "we don't to sexy ML, we do dull statistics", you will not be getting the best guys.
Just noticed you are being down voted. That is the zeitgeist getting to you my friend. Think how many good employees you are ditching :)
By 'entire field' you mean handwriting recognition? They reduce the search space by limiting themselves to combinations of typical pen movements. Very smart, but I cannot see how it can be applied to machine learning in general.