That isn't the choice here, though. The choice is between throwing up a big nonfunctional promotional screen or a nonfunctional version of the actual app.
A splash screen tells me "you can do something else, the window will show up when it's ready". A nonfunctional version forces me to poke it periodically until it works.
If the author has the splash screen burned into his retina, (s)he's doing it wrong.
