Personally, I'm kinda glad chips haven't been shipped yet due to the increase in difficulty. Sucks that people have put money into preorders but that was your decision. Yifu is a clever bastard but it really should have been expected.
There, I said it.
Not very clever when those same people "early adopters" stop buying Avalon products. Given the competition his "cleverness" will be a liability. The DIY community will definitely be going another direction after this debacle. Remember that DIY probably drove a good portion of the sales for these chips something that other chip makers should capitalize on in future. I suspect that like the limited and anemic development for BFL chip / board, (relative to the Klondike, BitBurner, and the Alten offering based on Avalon chips), Avalon has pretty much lost most future DIY board development. Why should anyone bother with Avalon or BFL when you can get other chips that are faster, more efficient and delivered on time with companies that are actually polite, responsive and supportive when you develop DIY boards? Note that many are also offering "protection" against the vagaries of the difficulty spikes as well as offering chips that are at starting at competitive costs.