Obviously startup founders talk about gross because it's the bigger figure, but even early stage investors ask what cut the marketplace is going to take.
I'm not really sure who the article is aimed at, I would have though that most non-VC late stage rounds are done by the like of investment banks or private equity firms who have a reasonable idea of what they're doing.
The other ill matched category that is getting a lot of exposure at these rounds is the private wealth groups of large ibanks. They get an allocation in the pre ipo round and farm it out to private wealth clients, because 1. PWM clients are all accredited investors so they can do it as a reg D exemption, and 2. The PWM clients feel special and like they are getting insider access from their PWM. I'm not super clear on why the companies take the PWM money, although I suspect that in fact it is a shrewd form of pre-marketing the IPO by getting private wealth clients to go bragging to their friends about the hot pre ipo deal so the friends want to buy it when it goes out.
Even private equity firms who would seem well matched to the size and structure of deal, often IMO come with mismatched expectations. The PE guys love complicated terms, dividends, fees, promotes, and all manner of East Coast legal wrangling which is often quite out of place in a relatively "clean" West Coast tech deal.
Disclaimer: am a West Coast tech venture investor
They know exactly what they're doing, but their customers don't necessarily. Investment Banks are more than happy to buy and flip overvalued assets to suckers provided they don't have to hold on to them for too long (c.f. 2007.)