Ask HN: Would you pay for video prototype validation before building?

I'm a developer who's wasted months building features nobody wanted.

Now I'm exploring a service: create 3-minute video prototypes to validate demand before writing code, then run targeted surveys.

The pitch: $500-1000 and 3-5 days to avoid a $20k failed MVP.

I don't have a product yet—just talked to 2 devs who said they'd use it.

Questions: 1. How do you validate features today? 2. Would you trust "fake" video prototype data? 3. What would make you actually pay for this?

Looking for brutal honesty before I build anything.