Everyone is grossly discounting the reputational risk of "releasing too soon".

Even an alpha release should work well. Being alpha just means it contains some new feature, not that everything else breaks down.

If your stuff doesn't work, properly and reliably, then it is a mere prototype, and not a release. If you only ever release prototypes, then why do you expect anyone to use it? Prototypes are to be looked at, and discussed, not used.

That release coulda been a screenshot.