I guess in the crypto world we have become used to how the various ASIC miner manufacturers have done their pricing for pre-orders, and consider that "normal." Given that the ASICs are not particularly flexible in what they can mine, perhaps it's necessary to even out the order flow and entice new orders to keep the manufacturing lines busy and the coin rolling in.

Seems SQRL has opted for a different approach to pricing their offerings. Time will tell which method is the right one, or if there is room for different pricing models based on the flexibility of the mining hardware being offered for sale.