This is a solid step in proving that the project isn't just a dream and isn't vaporware. Although I wonder why a plain board would be ordered, when it looks to be all very small SMT components that a hobbyist would have a difficult time with anyway?
They are auctioning these 100 boards (populated).
We’ve made 100 of these betas, which will now be populated with components... Raspberry Pis from this very first, small batch, will be going on sale when they’ve been tested
Which, actually, might be exactly what the square in the middle is. In which case they certainly will not be marketing bare boards.
Debugging/QA is utterly impossible though (since it generally involves x-rays), so if it doesn't work, you get to start over.
Agree on the debugging part though.