This assumption is at least partly wrong based on what Hal Finney says in this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.msg1643833#msg1643833When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test.
I noticed the above as well. Hal Finney seems to have been in things very early.