The benefit of Helion's approach, if it works, is that it's projected to produce power by direct induction of the magnetic field, which avoids the aforementioned thermal efficiency issues.

They also intend to pulse the reactor (forgot, maybe 30x/s?). Which again, avoids a ton of the really severe problems associated by attempting to create a sustained fusion reaction.

Is it a long shot? Probably. Then again, one of the reaction paths can be used to produce Tritium, which might lead to a reduction in "fuel" price for ITER.