This is such a popular misconception amongst the nerd set. Perhaps because there's a great us v. them narrative implicit in it. I suspect what initially birthed it was a basic misapprehension common to people who have great faith in their own intelligence and opinions - that of needing to ascribe stupidity to people who don't seem to share viewpoints.

I won't bother citing because it's literally overwhelming, but it's pretty clear that there are many companies producing software with the long-term view in mind, and I bet every single one of them is subject to schedule issues.

I've certainly been on teams with long-term thinking embedded in the process and spent time explaining delays, which is of course merely an anecdote, but rather suggestive of things not being as black and white as you'd like to present them.

edit: minor wording cleanups

'such a popular misconception amongst the nerd set'

Um, maybe its just been the places I've worked at, but I've been repeatedly told "we should ship software rather than get everything perfect".

I agree, at the same time, most if not all of the problems I've encountered (including ones I've built for myself) have been because of this impatience.