We've been meaning to upload extremely early also because I think it has a few advantages.
I feel if you upload a functional prototype (even if it's crappy) by day one, you can share it with people so they can play test.
Then you can push an updated build to the site every day of the jam. It's a great way of making sure you're not scrambling last second to push your game for the first time and running out of time (which has happened to my team a few times).
Anyway, do you feel posting early this time helped at all or not really?