* Why are the publisher producing so many review copies that this is even possible? And why isn't "review copy" plastered on every page? Why doesn't it have a different ISBN number (or no ISBN at all)? This just screams of publisher incompetence.
* Selling legitimate overstock is not a problem. Additionally the publisher (and author) got paid. Selling "destroyed" books is, again, the publisher being incompetent. Typically a publisher will have the first page or front cover returned to prove it was destroyed.
* Fake books are a legitimate problem, but the articles goes out of its way to say that that isn't happening multiple times.
Outside of fake books, most of these other theories read more like conspiracy and don't make rational sense on the face of it.