I'm not sure she is that much different to many other "players" in tech start ups, or business in general. A lot of business leaders are basically charismatic sociopaths. I've worked for some similar people. Despite having virtually no relevant knowledge or skills, somehow they attract funding and people who believe, and even after someone points out what they are trying is basically impossible, those people are quietly advised, "play along, take the money".
The main difference is she got caught out. The "successful" sociopaths are smart enough to not get caught out, e.g. by keeping promises and product deadlines vague. Steorn (and several other companies in the "free energy" field) kept going for quite a while, and burned up a lot of investor cash, even though their product was theoretically impossible. It is not that surprising that something that is vaguely plausible can attract a lot of funding.
Those who got lucky and succeeded are remembered as geniuses (like Edison), those who failed are thought to be frauds.