Hey Luke.
What you've posted here is essentially why I cancelled my AC/DC pre-order.
I asked my distributor about cancelling the order, and he said he would talk to Stern, and even go to the factory to check my machine out before boxing it up, making sure it met his approval. Great service.
I decided to think about it for a couple days. It was while I was thinking it over that I saw the broken Avengers thread that you're talking about. It kind of cemented my decision.
I may regret it, but I probably won't. It's a great game, but I've come to the realization that my expectations for its quality probably would never have lined up to reality, and my enthusiasm for it had all but evaporated due to this.