Being first to market is overrated, once the market is established you have much better information on how you can carve out your slice, whether that be on pricing or some other point of difference.
Even the established players in a field get complacent or too large to move quickly to address an emerging need and leave themselves open to disruption.
It might be overrated, but clearly it STILL MATTERS. I mean the entire article is about a developer who stopped working on an idea because he was beaten to market.
That is more about him and how he reacted than how it actually works in the market. If you have a better vision and a better execution, you can worry less about being the first, especially in an industry with a low barrier of entry.
Even the established players in a field get complacent or too large to move quickly to address an emerging need and leave themselves open to disruption.