There is more than one way to define 'testing'. That's not responsible for all of the misunderstandings, but it's responsible for quite a few. For some people, feature toggles fall under testing in production. For other people, they don't.
It's not whether production is orders of magnitude greater that preprod. It's whether production is orders of magnitude more diverse. If you've designed your product so that every user is a snowflake, that's on you, or at least the sales team. That functionality surface area is all undocumented features. Bragging about not being able to test all of the features you've promised users is like the opposite of a humble brag. What would you call that, a Dunning-Kruger brag?
I've worked at a few places that didn't understand this. A couple eventually got it (begrudgingly, and with a hint of resentment. The other never did, and hemorrhaged money and good people.
It's not whether production is orders of magnitude greater that preprod. It's whether production is orders of magnitude more diverse. If you've designed your product so that every user is a snowflake, that's on you, or at least the sales team. That functionality surface area is all undocumented features. Bragging about not being able to test all of the features you've promised users is like the opposite of a humble brag. What would you call that, a Dunning-Kruger brag?
I've worked at a few places that didn't understand this. A couple eventually got it (begrudgingly, and with a hint of resentment. The other never did, and hemorrhaged money and good people.