IMO if you don't have the money or can't get investors then you shouldn't be making a multimillion dollar asic.
The problem with preorders is that they require investor level risks for customer level rewards.
how many asic companies are there that never took pre-orders? I only know of a couple and AsicMiner is the main one, right? And they were in early, when it was low hanging fruit and low barrier to entry. almost everyone else that came later took pre-orders, or sold their chips to system integrators/assemblers that DID take pre-orders.
whereas... 21e6 - the private mine with silicon valley investors' backing - didnt take pre-orders.. they took investors. And surprise surprise, theyre a super secret private mine.