I think it's more a matter of companies just having different focuses. If you're wondering how to grow your userbase, you're thinking fundamentally differently than if you have an established one and are wondering how to monetize them.
Or maybe it's all one cycle with different phases? Not saying you did this, but is this a technique one uses to distract or diffuse a critical attack - break a system into parts and claim the parts are unconnected?
Anyways to the above, e.g. spider spins it's web, attracts the prey, mummifies, etc.
Sure, I didn't mean to imply that it's unconnected, just that they're at different places. You're right that it's almost certainly just parts of one common cycle.
