Ever heard of the Ouya?

As long as i can chargeback on my credit card I have no problems preordering (couple months out at most though, lol at people doing long term pre orders) I have no problem. Digital goods can fuck right on off. So many slimy tactics.

Meh.
Yes, for already announced limited runs of physical items that you know the quality off (say merch from artists) it's more fine than for mainly digital goods.
And, I have to agree, such a broad blanket statement is not really applicable to every type of purchase or life situation.

To be fully transparent: Even I participated in pre-orders. Off the top I can only remember some artist merch items like CDs I pre-heard some tracks and know what to expect from it and the Kickstarter for the uGreen NAS. But even for the uGreen NAS I knew the specs, price and if It's compatible with what I want to do before committing.
For any other purchase I waited patiently.

Yes and no.
Yes it can make sense fpr physical goods.
No, it's not a good thing.

It would make a lot of sense to the company trying to decide how large their production run should be.

For the customer, it only really makes sense if they are getting something out of it, like immunity to possible price hikes at launch.

I don't pre-order, but then, I am a late stage buyer, so it doesn't really apply to me.