Preorders make no sense at all from a consumerism perspective though.
Sure they do! At the core is the basic idea of:
1) A product
exists (not necessarily accessible) that the consumer desires
2) Said product is priced such that consumer will purchase.
...and that's it. Fun fact, rule #1 of Economics is
People are Dumb.
(Literally, look it up)
All that matters is that the product exists and is priced to be purchased. The
state of that existence can be as concrete as an ice-cream to as ethereal as NFT's (which are outrageously stupid, but, hey...remember rule #1). All that matters is that what is being sold - in the case of preorders, promise of delivery of a product - is priced such a consumer deems it worthy of purchase.
Preorders
aren't bad, per se. They are just rarely justified for
most people today. Prior to Day 1 digital downloads (which are nearly pointless given
nothing launches well on Day 1), preorders made
a lot of sense for high-demand physical copies. And still do for people who still buy physical (for whatever reason they choose).
But for online games, like Elite? Preorders rarely seem sensible...unless part of the 'pitch' of the product is preemptive support of the company. Which many on this forum quote as part of their decision process. They don't just want the
actual product of EDO (or, rather, what FDev said they'd deliver in EDO)...they also want to support FDev via a show of faith in preordering.
If you don't care about that 'show of faith/support'...(I don't, and I guess you don't either)...
Then preorders make no sense
to us. Part 1 of that consumerism isn't fulfilled. The product
isn't desirable at this time. But if what you desire is the
promise of that product - and the $40 pricetag fits your budget (which, for most, it does) - then the preorder makes perfect sense. As I said...the minute conumers start caring what
other consumers think, it all devolves into politics.