Yep. If they want people's money to play with with these pre-orders they have to offer compensation that equals the loss in the event their dates end up being so much smoke on the wind.
if they hold up their end they get interest free financing and their customers benefit with new hardware that gives them an advantage. if they don't hold up their end they pony up to an extent that makes it a wash for their customers.
without that, or something like it, you're absolutely right, these pre-orders are a losing game for the customer.
Really though, we just shouldn't be doing business with them unless they have product in hand. Exhibit #1: Hashfast and their MPP. They are late on shipping the product and
if they ship the MPP it'll be too little, too late. Taken as a hypothetical, the idea that any level of compensation, that wouldn't bankrupt the company and screw customers in the process, would be sufficient given the growth rate of difficulty is a pipe dream. The only real way to prevent problems with pre-orders is not to place them.
That or they should do a kickstarter type deal where they flat out tell you, "Give us money, you're buying into our dream, you're funding our startup, when/if we make money you'll get a bigger kickback than regular Joe retail, also we'll give you a BA shirt that you can either wear with pride or wear with a sense of irony depending on how things shake out. We may soar, or we may crash and burn, but now you know." I kind of assumed that anyway (based on the industry and the pre-order setup) but it would be a nice up front warning for all the people (and based on these forums there's a ton of them) that don't know that going in.