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I thought it’s normal at IPO to have a lockup period of 90-180 days for staff preventing them selling shares.

Yes but that has to be set out in advance in the agreement and cannot be unilaterally decided on the day (which is how I interpret OP's comment).

Why is that?

So that all the employees and major stakeholders don't dump stock on day 1 and tank the price, often permanently affecting the company's perception in the eyes of investors

I don't think it's solely the "price-tanking", it ties them to the company for a while.

i.e. If I was an investor looking to buy, I'd be a bit worried if the dev team would all be made instant millionaires on the day I bought in, with no incentive aside from salary to carry on working. You might find you'd just bought shares in an empty office.

Not being able to sell the shares you own is separate from not owning shares in the first place.

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