Only if the programmers are doing it wrong. I add unit tests from day one not because I'm just that disciplined... honestly I think my discipline may even be a touch sub-average compared to a lot of programmers... I add them from day one because they speed me up, starting somewhere around the third week or so (so we're not talking years before it pays off here). I do not understand how programmers are OK with making a change and then only finding out later that they broke something distant that they wouldn't have thought would break. It would be so frustrating. Or decide to refactor something in week 4 without unit test support.
Your janky code guy may beat me in the first month but after that I'm quite likely going to pass him and never look back.
Revealed preference of business is to move fast and break things. ("Any idiot can build a bridge, it takes a professional (an engineer!) to build one that barely stands.")
I grieve with you but it seems the way out of this is through some kind of magic potion cooked of the usual forbidden ingredients of: free and open source, being your own boss, idealism, etc.
Your janky code guy may beat me in the first month but after that I'm quite likely going to pass him and never look back.