1) It cost $5 to pre-order, so nobody was at a financial disadvantage
2) Luck? There was no luck ... pre-order earlier, get more ealy access ... it's a fairly simple concept really. There is NO luck involved.
3) incompetent retailers is not EA/BW's problem ... If tried to pre-order from Gamestop and they didn't have a preorder code for me right that minute, I'd have pre-ordered from a different retailer