And compared to self-mining on machines instead of selling (or selling slowly due to high prices), it offsets the entire risk to the buyer, returns your investment instantly instead of drawing it out over the next year, and then you don't have the additional headache of establishing and maintaining your own mega farm.
That's how I'd do it.
The problem with miner sales hasn't so much been that people are charged too much. The real problems happen when people are charged about the right amount, and then when the gear arrives six months too late and the diff has doubled. Or when it doesn't arrive at all. If folks felt ripped off by the upfront price of gear they wouldn't buy it. The problem is when what was purchased isn't delivered at all or is delivered so late (or, as noted in this thread, delivered far out of promised spec) it ends up having less (or zero) worth compared to sales promises. "You can't cheat an honest person" makes no sense. You can; it's called "deception".
That's a nice theory (not really). Now look at the real world where most mining is now some form of self mining (including profit sharing) and even a lot of the machines that were ever supposedly sold to independent miners in the past were self-mined first.
When confronted with evidence that contradicts your theory, deny the evidence or reevaluate your theory. In this case, I'll keep it simple for you, your theory is just wrong.
Yes, and what do you know, often those miners were mining for the manufacturer "for testing" during that six months.