I understand that startups are about promise and potential, and that a company with no revenue might be fairly valued at billions of dollars.

A startup (or any company) is worth something like the integral of of the graph of probability vs. outcome. The problem I see right now is that people are overvaluing the positive outcomes and discounting the low end.

"Because a small float was offered, and demand was prescriptive by the bankers, it's impossible to say that because of how it ended, trying to raise the price to $40 would have resulted in the same outcome."

I'm not completely sure what you mean by this, but I spent time on an ECM desk one summer and I they aren't aiming for a 75% first day pop. The bankers get paid less, the company raises less. You want a pop to satisfy buy-side clients and to keep a positive public perception, but 75% is too much.