2 people in say, their early 30s (possibly supporting small families) who need to finance 6-12 months before sufficient profits start to turn probably require something more to the tune of $100k+ than $10k, which is not that easy to save even when working as a programmer.
Try going through a few rounds of IVF in a state that doesn't require insurance companies to cover it. Not exactly the greatest boost to your net worth, monetarily-speaking :)
The truth is, life is messy. Everybody has things come up. Heck, even some of the greatest entrepreneurs have found themselves dead broke at one time or another. It's hard to say that it's an indicator of success or failure though. Due diligence could weed out the financially-irresponsible, but it's not always as simple as looking at a bank account.
Take founders' age into account - a lot of capable people with good ideas have several 10s of thousands of student loans to pay off and hence don't really have any savings for example
Which is also why it's hard to raise $10 mil, but it's pretty much impossible to raise $10 thousand.