I think you're knit picking nitpicking.
Oh most definitely
If they had profits and outside investments, why exactly did they need to take full payment pre-orders? if they didnt need customer money why not take a small deposit to hold the clients place, this is what normal real world companies do?
Meh, why not? As a small company, it's vastly easier to have everyone pay in full right from the start. When the time comes to build, package, and ship, it's nice to know that you have X amount of customers that have already paid, compared to X [fully paid], Y [partially paid], and/or even Z [not paid]. It negates the "Oh wait, did this person pay the rest of their bill before I ship?" type of mentality.