Well if you used your head, the reason everything is out of stock is the simple fact EVERYONE tried to get timecards, and also the site clearly wasn't prepped for a large influx of people. such super slow loading and everything being out of stock.
Why physical not digital? Fraud Prevention, stops people from using stolen cards and such to get digital codes for stuff like G2A. (you can get digital stuff once you got 2 orders with them)
Is it a good move? prob 40/60, it does dis-sway wanna be scammers, but it also shoo's potential buyers.
Why wont they give you codes for pre-orders?
1. You didn't pay for the product yet.
2. To prevent another Amazon incident.
(the incident was were people pre-ordered shit to get the ffxiv promo codes, then canceled the pre-orders, thus getting the codes, for free.)
Could they of picked a better site/promo? Probably but we don't know what goes on behind closed doors.
But hey, at least they are working out stock issues so people can get timecards again.