I'd think something like this would shut a lot of those people up.
I don't know what the outcome of this experiment is going to be, but I think it's a good PR move for the Ballet wallet--and I do recall reading a thread in which it was heavily criticized. Unfortunately, the wallet still suffers from the same barrier that any new HW wallet coming onto the market these days does, which is the test of time. Some people might take comfort that Bobby Lee is doing this and might try out a Ballet, but I don't think they're going to become anywhere near as popular as the leading HWs out there until they've been on the market for a while.
How can one verify that the specific wallets he is using went through the same production process as the ones I might have? Or you might have?
That's probably a good point. There's always the possibility that this isn't what it appears to be, much like a lot of other things in crypto. Hopefully that's not the case here.