Not to belabor this point, but another real example of this is Harley-Davidson throughout the 90s and early 2000s. They used the same model that Stern is using - break up your two basic models into multiple "limited edition customs", get your product on TV in every movie and commercial, allow people to pre-order, put down large deposits, and wait months or even years for their bikes, whip up the FOMO on commercials, live events, and the web, etc.
Most importantly, they DEFINITELY limited production in a careful and calculated manner to keep demand higher than supply. This helped them keep their prices high, and they sold as many bikes as they wanted for a while. I remember reading quite a few articles in which the Harley executives openly admitted doing this. It's not illegal - it just doesn't create great customer relations.
It tends to annoy your customers and even drive them to other brands. There still aren't that many alternate choices in pinball, so that isn't as much of a danger in that industry. But in the long run, constantly annoying your customers erodes your relationship with them over time. It's not really a good long-term strategy, unless you're pretty sure there isn't going to be too much competition (like Stern seems to be acting).
No one liked Harley for doing that, and no one likes Stern for apparently doing the same thing. It's their right to market their products any way they choose, but ultimately it's our cash that they are looking for, not our love.