Using RISC-V doesn't let you bypass chip shortages... Do they actually understand what they're talking about?

Any fab is allowed to produce a RISC-V CPU. You will also have far more core designs that can work across different fabrication possess.

It’s not obvious that any RISC-V CPUs that might be able to compete with ARM/x86 will be free in the future. It would take a lot of money to design them, why would the company that does that just give it away for free?

One-man project. It works, right now, at A76 levels. The aim is M1 level, and the bottlenecks to that are known and being addressed.

There is NO WAY one person could do with with a complex ISA such as x86, ARM, or POWER.