Yes, the "whale" is the single huge client who pays a lot of money for the enterprise software. The client is not the users. The sales pitch for enterprise software is where the polish goes.
For Enterprise software I take auditable, stable processes and performance over a polished UI every single time. Also talking as a long time user of the poster child, SAP. Enterprise software doesn't have to be pretty, it has to do its job. And that requires a lot effort, I'd argue more effort than developing a polished consumer facing app.
