I don't think it's weird at all to withhold judgement before experiencing something yourself. It is pretty much impossible to know with certainty how you will feel about some things without experiencing them.
True for foldables and novelty movie popcorn buckets.
I believe that they are sold as refurbished. Apple loses some money on it, I would assume.
More likely Apple factors this used return rate into the pricing. They must have lots of data when new products are released, including with radical changes.
Apple has an average profit margin of nearly 30%. Even with the 10% refurbish discount, and a 10% veteran/student/educator/etc discount, and the cost of refurbishing, they still are likely in the green.