Let me put it this way, I was backer #816. They currently have 37,987 backers. They raised $4,882,784 during a global pandemic. I think I’m not off base when I said “If you can get one.”
I mean, if Nvidia and AMD can't get a graphics card into my hands over the course of a year then I can't imagine a super tiny group of engineers would have much luck bootstrapping the supply chain for their brand new product.
Producing anything to sell commercially requires work up front. That work has to get paid for. While that work is happening, the people involved need to eat and to keep their families fed. Is the universe a big ol' meanie for "requiring" people to keep eating? I guess.
Regardless, up-front money is required. Previously something like this could only happen if you managed to find somebody with millions of dollars sitting around and then managed to convince them to give you enough to get your product built. And then you had the problem of finding your buyers, which cost more money for marketing.
I have my issues with Kickstarter. But inviting the individuals who want your product to participate in financing it seems like a giant step forward to me. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears. If not, maybe just block Kickstarter in your browser? Then you'll be free of any perceived burdensome requirements.
You're phrasing this like they're GPUs. But those GPUs have general availability, at least on paper. There are no people, other than the Flipper devs, their friends, and perhaps selected reviewers, who have one of these in their hands to play with. It has not hit 1.0 yet.
It's only 5 months late, it's like you've never backed a Kickstarter before.
"If you can get one. They're behind schedule and haven't shipped any yet." would have been fine.