You couldn't have been more wrong. They have their own forums, where i'd imagine you'd get a better response.
+1
Yeah it has been made painfully obvious that decent discussion is no longer appreciated at Amiga.org but I digress..
In answer to your original question, many if not most companies take pre-orders... I am certain that if I had a DIME into a project of this magnitude I would take pre-orders as well...
If folks don't like the pre-ordering offer for whatever reason, then don't pre-order...