Private investors are (usually, and theoretically) more "long-term" motivated than the public markets. Day traders and rotating board members love quarterly boosts even if it implodes the company, but with private equity, passing a bag of shit to someone else isn’t so easy, and desires aren’t so fickle.

Hence I suspect you're right.

It’s wild to me how few people understand that private companies have shareholders too

That just means that buying it spreads the money to slightly more people. They're practically just as easy to acquire.