My take on pre-order: If you are sure it's going to be a game you will want and play, irregardless of the number and severity of any bugs it may come with, then pre-order. You are not charged until the order is shipped, so all you are doing is making sure you get it as fast as possible and trading sales tax for shipping.
On the other hand, if the quality level (and track record) of the product you are waiting for is questionable, I would not pre-order. When product is pushed out the door to make a deadline, you are the one that suffers. Either through now having spent money on an unplayable game which you now have to wait for patches (that will hopefully work) or go through the hassle of returning it. I used to think much differently about pre-ordering, until that last version of Ultima came out.
Again, this is just my opinion.