By that logic, all bank tellers embezzle and banks are not safe. It is not, in fact, how the world works, and it is destructive to civilization.
I fail to see your analogy.
While it's entirely possible that Avalon not interested in profit at all, and that he's selling his ASIC product at or below cost, it doesn't seem that way.
If he's selling for a profit, then he is expecting to make at least *some* money on his endeavor. As gapthemind pointed out, he could make more money by running the miners himself than by selling them.
That said, there are a couple of factors involved. If he turns on all 300 of his batch, how would that affect difficulty? How many of his potential customers would drop out of the market because the profits have lowered? How long would it take for him to recoup his initial investment, as opposed to selling them outright?
[speculation]
I assume he is interested in making back all of his expenses, and a reasonable income from his professional time. I don't see evidence that he is blinded by greed or willing to act unethically.
A completely different thing that he could do is to make a best in class effort to deliver what he promised on time and within budget without a lot of public posturing.
I think there is about another month for him to deliver my Avalon batch #2, so at this time this is entirely feasible.
Then to use the experience to silently produce version 2 of the ASIC. Some potential changes are 1) smaller line size, 2) choose a few alternate design decisions, or 3) Use them in-house only, 4) offer the founding customers a *really* good deal.
[/speculation]
There is at least as much evidence for all of my speculation as there is for any darker speculation.