Exactly that - once it’s shipped it’s shipped. Doesn’t matter if the code is “clean” or “maintainable” or whatever.

The longer it’s not released for sale, the more debt you’re incurring paying the staff.

I’ve worked with a few ex-game devs and they’re always great devs, specifically at optimising. They’re not great at the “forward maintainability” aspect though because they’ve largely never had experience having to do it.