It's not a crude proxy. In this case it is a vendor deciding not to sell to a customer who is acting in a way they perceive to be bad faith. This is their righ

It's not a crude proxy. In this case it is a vendor deciding not to sell to a customer who is acting in a way they perceive to be bad faith. This is their right as a vendor. In this case it happens that the bad faith is at comfortably odds with the objectives of the vendor and product manufacturer. As high incomes diverge even further from low (and even median) incomes, we're doing to see this happen a lot more. And I think until this chip shortage is over in particular, we will see a lot more measures like this. I fully applaud this -- I love my Pi 4 and I want more people to experience what these little things can do, without paying over the odds to cynical manipulative stains.