FWIW I worked at Blizzard for a long time and can affirm that this was the basis of the decision-making to hold the release of the original Diablo until after the 1996 holiday (so the origin of the philosophy in question at least goes back to then, if not farther as detailed in the linked article). It was actually driven by our head of marketing, who encouraged the developers and company president to take more time with the game and get it right rather than rushing it out in time for the holiday demand. He said “No one will remember whether a game was on time; they’ll only remember it if it’s great, so let’s just focus on the game and not worry about an arbitrary schedule” or something like that. That marketing guy’s recommendation turned out to be the right decision, and it formed the basis of Blizzard’s ongoing philosophy for many years to come. It’s also listed in the company values, as part of the basis for “Commit to Quality.”