Lukewarm software take
If you have to show a startup splash screen then you have failed 
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nitpicking
Embedded software waiting on the hardware? Then it might be the hardware developer who has failed.
I also wonder what you think about software whose only point is communicating with a particular remote thing in a synchronous way: it needs to do _something_ while it establishes the connection.
nitpicking
@robryk I am talking from the POV of the average end user using an app - I don't really care whose fault it really is, I just want my app now