I’ve come across a different application of the term. Can’t remember where though, and have no material on it:

Front-End Loading is the concept that the more up-front work you do on planning activities such as risk identification & mitigation, nailing down resource requirements, plant & material costs, schedule, etc; the quicker & cheaper the project will be delivered.
It relies heavily on the fact that the later on in a project a required change in scope / schedule / design / resource requirements etc is identified, the more it costs in terms of money & time.
A pretty basic concept of planning really, but I think the idea was to be prepared to delay the project start / funding approval until you can be highly confident your estimates are accurate enough.
Of particular use I guess in projects like refitting an offshore platform, where money spent on up-front planning is a pittance compared to saving a day or two of having the platform shutdown, but I would imagine this is standard practise anyway in such industries.

I think you’re referring to the practice of over-stating the costs of early activities of construction on the project’s schedule of values.

The idea is that since the early activities are paid out first, the Contractor can give himself some more operating capital through by inflating the price of excavation, trenching, and concrete work. He’ll be able to pay out his early subtrades (minus holdback) and use the leftover as an operating contingency.

This is all assuming that we’re talking about the same thing.