I agree, but I think in CDPR's case, the pre-order figure was so high because everyone assumed that the company who bases their entire USP on being the trustworthy, non-scummy game devs wouldn't turn around and do something far more deceptive and scummy than even the likes of EA and destroy their whole business model overnight.

I don't think that's much of an exception, if anything its a perfect keystone to the state of the industry. They had released exactly one great game before C2077 (complete with two stellar expansions.) Before that they had released two good but very flawed games. The fact that everyone assumed the company based the reputation on trust and quality is a testament to how willfully ignorant gaming consumers can be