It's really not fair to lecture people about either being "satisfied with the pre-order photos" or "sucking it up" when it's an untested company and even established ones usually release product that looks noticeably worse than the promotional photos, like all the examples you listed. Like GT themselves, even (their Sephiroth, which released first, has the usual downgraded face paint that comes with being mass produced). GT's Cloud being so obviously better than the prototype is an extreme rarity.
The people who pre-ordered the GT Cloud got lucky. Nobody was predicting they'd completely toss out the head and successfully improve on the old one, completely toss out the body and make an entirely new one, completely toss out the clothes and retailor them in a different material and color. Even if the company was saying they would, that hardly means anything in this industry (how many times does Asmus insist they'll fix things and then they just don't).
Most of the sellers only take a deposit and you are free to look around for sellers who can do a better deposit range, unlike companies like Hot Toys, Blitzway, Enterbay who dictate a certain amount of deposit pricing for fulfillment, GT (and most third party companies) do not have this pre-requisite.
Like I mentioned earlier in the same reply, GT has taken note and actually shared that the pre-order images are not final but they need to know the production amount. Even in that thread people were giving feedbacks/complaints which GT has noted. (at least until the thread disappears) Not being privy to the manufacturer (and in a different language) notes is something that can't be helped but at the same time how many notes/feedback are enough from collectors without it starting to become just "oh another thing to add on?". The first and foremost GT boss wanted is to satisfy his own "ideal" Cloud so I do not think it's reasonable for collectors to have too much inputs during the process because everyone's ideal figure is different.
Looking back at my message as a whole, I have described the exact situation that unfolded during Cloud's pre-order up till release, mentioned it here a few times on what is happening with the situation (since I understand the language in the forum) yet people still ran with "they got VTS to compare and adjust after release" which is just mind boggling. My entire message is to address that particular issue because it keeps getting used as a narrative despite what Walter already shared several pages back.
All companies starts out as an unknown, you just have to take a leap of faith if you really wanted some representation of the figure you want. End of the day as a consumer you are free to comment and complain about the inaccuracies but ultimately you hold the power on giving the money to the manufacturer. As far as I know, most worldwide distributor/sellers only take a nominal deposit to ensure you wouldn't bounce when it comes to release and very rarely in full. The timeline given for GT Cloud was up for a while for most sites and in this very thread you see people commenting on "maybe yes, maybe no" then. Even so, there was still a reasonable amount of Cloud available after release, though at a slightly inflated price due to the amount of attention it has gotten and these people think there's a chance of re-runs and are unwilling to pay more for it. Still, many have gotten it until it completely dried up and then you get the same people asking for re-runs because they 'missed' out. So if you don't want to miss out, you can and should place a pre-order deposit or at least find one seller that would allow you to do so.
Saying those who got it are lucky is ignoring the fact that this thread was running for a long while and many others have and attest that GT are legit in terms of quality since they have already previously release 2 figures which some collectors (including me) have.
Maybe it works differently in your country but if you are getting figures directly from a distributor/source you are only putting up a deposit which you can give it up or transfer it if it's not to your liking (depending on the place's policies) after release. If you are paying full in advance for a order that may or may not release within the stipulated timeline, then you may want to consider switching your purchasing tactics, especially if it's from an unknown/third party companies.
While I do feel sorry for those who hopped on the hype train way too late but it is what it is in this collector's space. The collectors only can take comfort in the fact that there will always be a chance another company or even official companies will do a figure again.
