No company that is executing on patents is doing so without some amount of trade secrets. If they demand itemized financials, for instance, they have a snapshot of your suppliers and your costs, which makes them a stronger competitor in your industry even if they can't use your patents.

I think it definitely applies to the tech industry and in fact these tactics are pretty universal. For example, I've seen them applied by basically the entire paints & coatings industry's corp dev teams when we were exploring the sale of a paint company. Nobody's going to turn down the chance to look at a competitor's financials, even if they have to promise in writing not to use the information materially for their own benefit.

I'm not a lawyer nor do I have a ton of experience in patent-related matters. If the startup is patent rich and is sitting on a mountain of cash, and feels like it's weird that it hasn't paid an astronomical sum of money to lawyers in a while, then maybe it could justifiably feel somewhat protected by its patents. Then again, look at Apple/Samsung over the years...I don't think patents are the be-all and end-all.