Yes, artificial scarcity and the accompanying artificially high prices are a bad thing for consumers, in all situations.

Inventory in a warehouse does not have the kind of cost you think it does. Most of the "cost" people talk about are hypothetical profits that a different product occupying that space might generate in the same time. The real costs are insurance and warehouse leases. Per unit, it's almost nothing.

A company like Apple could easily stockpile months worth of inventory and never even notice the real physical cost of storing it.