@BJL: A rational buyer compares their perceived value with the seller's asking price. If the value far exceeds the price, then the decision to buy is quite obvious. If value is far less than the price, then clearly you should not buy. If value ~= price, then there is a tough decision to be made. Purchasing for any other reason is foolish.
Photography, even for enjoyment, has a measurable value. If you did nothing you enjoyed with your life, other aspects would suffer. If you only did things for pleasure and never earned any income, you would have an income shortage. There is a balancing point in hobby photography where the enjoyment enables us to continue in other necessary facets of life. Enabling this balance has a monetary value. Even though the act of participating in hobby photography has no direct economic output, indirectly it enables us to earn income in other areas for extended periods of time.
Also, I believe point b is assuming that wait-listed orders will become available at some point in time for a particular price. I was never under the impression that a pre-order in any way contractually obligated them to sell you a device at any price at any time.
Lastly, you seem to misunderstand value. Value is what you obtain from an item you possess. Price is what a seller charges you to obtain that value. If, as an amateur, you choose to obtain little value from an item, that is your choice. The price a seller demands does not necessarily change in response to your achieving little value from the item. In the software world, this sort of value vs price discussion becomes all the more interesting as after the development work has completed the per-unit cost is nearly zero--all the cost was upfront in the development work. The development cost difference from the basic to the pro version is insignificant and yet the price to the buyer may be doubled. This is because the functionality in the pro version may significantly improve the value of the software. Hardware, such as a camera, obviously has a non-trivial cost to produce each unit sold, which must be recouped.