Nice posting, Brian. Good reminder that cashflow is extremely important. ("Cashflow is more important than my mother" is the way one VC put it many years ago.) Perhaps the title should have been "The Cashflow of SaaS" given the focus of the article.
You identified the underlying issue: investing upfront when getting paid over time. And as you know, funding the timing gap between cash-outflow and cash-inflow can be by sweat equity, OPM (FFF, VCs, credit cards), or cash upfront from customers.
Too often, people equate SaaS with monthly payments. In the pricing work we do, payment T's and C's are part of licensing and packaging where the offering is structured. The discount or premium you may charge customers who pay upfront or over time is part of scheduled discounts (which can include premiums as well).
Sometimes monthly prices are a way of making a price attractive -- even though you have to buy a year's worth of service.
As for NetSuite, their losses may be an artifact of revenue recognition. NetSuite is investing heavily on growth and, as long as they continue to ramp their spend relative to customer acquisition and payments, they will continue to generate losses.
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