Pre-order vs pre-buy is a subtle difference that might make riskier projects workable. Projects get a lot of the benefits but the risk of customers & kickstarter getting burned is much smaller.
Some projects may not need the funding so there's no reason to introduce that risk. Others might be able to live without it. I imagine that having 500k of pre-orders could be leveraged for financing via another route (investment, loans, credit lines).
If Kickstarter is watching learning, maybe they can fix problematic categories by tweaking the model rather than banning them entirely.
Pre-order vs pre-buy is a subtle difference that might make riskier projects workable. Projects get a lot of the benefits but the risk of customers & kickstarter getting burned is much smaller.
Some projects may not need the funding so there's no reason to introduce that risk. Others might be able to live without it. I imagine that having 500k of pre-orders could be leveraged for financing via another route (investment, loans, credit lines).
If Kickstarter is watching learning, maybe they can fix problematic categories by tweaking the model rather than banning them entirely.