In the age of digital distribution, pre-ordering buys you nothing.
We're seeing studios allow you to access the game one or two days early, and maybe get some cosmetics. That's a poor trade for risking your money on a bad product
What I was originally sold on made sense: physical games sometimes have shortages and if you want to avoid that you can pay up front to reserve a copy. I pre ordered Skyrim and it shipped to me almost a week after all my friends got theirs who didn't preorder. The physical copy of Skyrim was meaningless since it was tied to steam anyway. That was my first and last experience with preordering
"I like to preorder my groceries. I know they're going to have what I want, they always do, but I just give them a few hundred in advance to make sure they'll still have some when I get there."
I usually pre order a day before IF there have been reviews and such. At that point I still have plenty of time for a steam refund and the reviews have given me some level of confidence.