RaspberryPis are a physical good, those have production limitations. They are also quite cheap, sell well, and have kept prices.

It’s quite different from a lootbox that has no production restriction (replication is instant and almost free)

I don’t believe that the low supply of RPIs is an attempt to extract huge profits, logistics are not easy. This magazine move seems more of an honest way to prioritizing people that have been showing interest. They are not demanding new subscriptions, they are prioritizing who has on.

An entusiastic hobbyists, that has been accompanying the project and supporting via these, would be happy that we got his pi before some random guy clicking buy on impulse