The situation is very different when creating software for internal use in large corporations, which I think was the case with this study. With a startup, launching early can get you the advantages you mentioned, and your code quality does not necessarily have to be high because you generally will not have many users at the start. Large internal software must be highly functional and performant from the first deployment because it will immediately be used by the whole company and will often affect revenue streams. This allows low quality to have a huge impact from day 1.