So... how does Early Access work with physical pre-orders?

[Snugglebutt]

Nope it will happen. Probably a few times over the first 2weeks, they'll have emergency maintenances. Cant test for everything, so the bugs will crop up as more people try to play. No matter how good Quality Assurance is, there's always something. All they can do is hope its not something insanely game breaking or critical. Though I doubt the game would be down for an entire week. Just maybe a day or 4-5hrs here and there.

Being down for an entire week was what I was referring to and the point of my previous comment which I do not think you understood since you first said will happen then agreed with me that you doubt will be down for an entire week which is what I said, the odd 4-5 hour maintenance after release and just prior is normal but being down a whole continuous week is what I would have an issue with if paid for that months game time subscription.