Considering the indie crap you can find on Steam greenlights and early acceses, a dedicated team of visionaries, fans and skilled programmers can deliver a decently good game without the need of large publishers.
Subsim is a good information hub should such a project start, lack of a publisher means there's no time pressure and investors demanding blood and an unlimited amount of period and equipment knowledge.
I mean, look at all the moders here. Working on a game that was probably not meant to be modded. All we need to do is build a mod suporting platform and sell it afterwards.
But personaly I can't really help. Can't programme, can't draw graphics... I can garden though
