The “bugs are 100x more expensive to fix in production” study might not exist
I guess that 100x is just an arbitrary number that means 'orders of magnitude'. If production means going to Pluto on a super expensive space mission, and the bug ruins all the scientific experiments, and your future funding depends on the success of the mission, I'd say that the cost tends to infinity. If the product requires some kind of polishing that only interaction with real users can provide, then the cost of bugs at production be even negative (spend less time on the requirement side, etc.).