Quoted from fosaisu:It’s been years since either Stern or JJP was sending out populated replacement playfields. So if this is your expectation you definitely should not be buying NIB.
I received a populated playfield for one of my games a couple months ago. It was an extremely smooth process and immediately offered when I sent pictures of the defect. As mentioned above, it seems like they will do populated replacements if the defect impacts gameplay (as mine did).