This is a pattern I've seen, recently. Going nutso on the sales and marketing without building up a product and a strategy to back it up first. They went far too quickly for something that hadn't proven its worth and demand yet.
I agree, it felt like repeating the same mistake. However, there was a slightly different context in that they were comparing data between two different, parallel-running approaches. That may have helped avoid it happening a second time, maybe?
Interesting article, but my comment is re. Medium's UI: they break space/page-down/page-up, due to the bar at the bottom of the page: one loses a line of text when spacing down, and then when going up a line with a cursor key, a box drops down and hides several lines. Horrible, horrible UX.
I see what you're suggesting, and honestly, hope that better characterizes this particular portion of the story; not that I have a horse in the race, but I'd rather here that this turns out well rather than burst into flames.