Yes, of course. A full fledged sysadmin is expensive, and startups will typically make several costly mistakes before going to that expense.

This is not surprising, and is not even regrettable. If the business can't support the overhead of someone who doesn't directly bring in revenue, then it can't. And if there's a large investment that makes good infrastructure engineering possible, first-time entrepreneurs might not realize that they need that function.

The key to long term success is in realizing what you will need before it's too late to get it.