There are ways to turn revenue into a vanity metric. But that's true about profit as well.

In the long run, revenue means satisfied customers. That is the economic purpose of business: to create value for others. Yes, you need to do that sustainably, which means giving your investors a decent return. But you'll never make real long-term profits without creating value and taking in revenue.

I don't think this accurately captures the trade-off that exists implicit in things like this, the risk/reward.

Prioritizing profit early on could mean less reinvestment, slower growth, and ultimately less dominance of an industry (or a smaller industry).

Depends on your risk appetite. For many investors, the biggest cost is how much of their time it takes for a projected possible payout.

It's a different argument that people aren't accurately evaluating the inputs. But to hyperbolically state one is vanity, the other sanity, reflects but one perspective.