Admittedly, "Switching a whole product lineup from IBM to Intel" is the sort of multi-billion dollar deal that will give you lots of pull, pre-release goodies,

Admittedly, "Switching a whole product lineup from IBM to Intel" is the sort of multi-billion dollar deal that will give you lots of pull, pre-release goodies, and bulk discounts with a provider. But it's a one-time trick. We can't expect them to do it all the time. You won't, and shouldn't, get preferential treatment for "upgpraded an existing laptop to use the newest model of the same CPU". (Switching to ARM right now could potentially allow for a nice repeat, though)