OK, so maybe they want to off load some risk or find some suckers who will pay more than it's worth. Pure nonsense

Isnt that the essence of AM's business model (and that of every other asic vendor) ?
Have you heard Friedcat asking for an additional round of investments?
Reread the above, and see where it says "investors".
Selling mining equipment to end users t is just another way to offload risk to suckers who generally want to pay more than its worth.