What if they built it into the price? What if the only way they could actually afford to develop a custom ASIC chip was with a certain period of pre-mining?
It's not like anyone is complaining that it isn't possible for them to actually build a custom ASIC chip with what they were charging...
Let all be clear. Estimating current BFL units sold the profit from 30 days of sustained QC/burn-in mining would equate to 80-150 USD discount per unit.
The other ASIC vendors have claimed and will survive without profiting from main-net. While they may perform limited testing with main-net, they will not be performing 24 hour burn-in sessions with each unit produced.
There's no excuse. There's no good reason (other than easy money) that they would tell us they would not do this, but then change their mind and consider it an issue of little importance to the mining community.
The BFL unit you have paid for is effectively 80-150 USD more expensive than you realize. And it's not even the best $/GH.