Currently, people getting their devices can probably expect some profit on them (at least if they didn't pay in BTC back before BTC went through the roof).
No one paid "in BTC". They paid in USD with BTC. It is as useless to compare an investment in BTC with an investment in a mining machine as it is to compare an investment in gold mining equipment with an investment in gold itself. Hindsight is 20/20, and no one knew that BTC would be worth as much as it is today when they ordered mining equipment with the price at $5. They chose to invest in mining equipment instead of Bitcoin itself, while Bitcoin itself has shown itself to be the more profitable investment. Both investments have proven to be profitable - just because the profit would have been higher in one investment does not mean the investment in the other is a loss.
Just saying. They'd have been in better shape just to sit on their BTC.
For that matter, they'd have been in better shape to use the same USD to buy BTC.
BFL is one of the kinds of things that happen in a "gold rush economy." You know who made the most profit on the gold rush (other than the real monsters who moved in like Hearst)? It wasn't the miners. It was the people who sold them equipment.
Funny how history repeats itself.
Yes, I agree, they would have been better off to sit on their BTC. They'd also have been in better shape to use that USD on some penny stock that went up 10,000%. I mean, we could go on about what-if scenarios, but since no one knows the future, they're kind of pointless.