This is HNs, plenty of people think they know everything about startups because they can deploy a React app on Digital Ocean.

Running a startup is difficult as hell, so IMHO, if an app manages to have a successful launch, then more power to them. At the end of the day, it boils down to capturing value to be able to make it. For some businesses Techcrunch/Buzzfeed/etc press may be a key factor in this process, for others, it is just vanity. Why do we even care?