Anecdote of one, but my funder is quite old and he has taken us on even though our research is not quite in his vein. Moreover, our PI is super old but he's often pushing us to keep fusion in mind, although we are aware that really going down that road in our would be a tough sell for funders.
It isn't quite an age thing as much as it is a "establishment" thing. The establishment is, if you will, older and more established than any one individual, old or young.
In my area (AI), if anything I think the older people in funding bodies are more open to funding a large variety of work, because they've seen multiple cycles of hot techniques coming and going, and lots of eggs being put in a handful of baskets, so tend to think there's value in funding even long-shot and currently-not-hot areas in case something comes out of them long term. Younger people involved in these kinds of funding bodies are much more likely to be the ones pushing for funding to be highly concentrated in a handful of currently hot areas that have clear paths to near-term significant advances, the "we should put 100% of our funding into deep neural networks" type of strategy.
It isn't quite an age thing as much as it is a "establishment" thing. The establishment is, if you will, older and more established than any one individual, old or young.