I really wanted these to worth buying; but they aren't.
A 5x 1070 rig costs almost exactly the same and will produce 1900+ sol/s @ ~850 watts with stock settings.
With optimized settings you should be able to get 1900+ sol/s @ ~550 watts.
This is with equipment that is easy to resell, and is likely to hold its value well over time.
The panda miner needs to be both; way more efficient, and have a significantly lower price.
As it is now: it's just a ripoff targeting new miners.
To me I tend to agree with your thoughts on the ability to reuse, upgrade, sell, and get support for components of my gpu rigs so the "disposable nature of the Pandaminer is not appealing to me.
I am pretty sure I can get at least one upgrade cycle done during the time frame that the Pandaminer will be in service. So during the life of the miner I will have been able to recoup some of my costs in GPU's for the next gpu upgrade and at the end of it I will still be able to sell the existing GPU's for their residual value to put into the wider ranging upgrades that will be needed due to age, wear, tear, and newer technology. So I think in the end the self built rigs with better warranties make more sense.
However there are some caveats. If you are not experienced building rigs, don't want to build rigs, don't have the time, energy, or want to put in the effort to source, build, and yes FIGHT with the stinking things on a routine basis then the Pandaminer fits the bill.
You buy "something", it just works, and when you are done there will still be some residual value left in it. The Pandaminer could greatly simplify GPU mining for those that don't want to mess with it. Set it and forget it. This product makes sense for that market.
The Pandaminer doesn't appeal to me because I think the numbers stack in favor of the custom built rigs with better warranties. YMMV
I am finding this thread interesting. I guess I am hoping there is some sort of silver lining here and my concerns are addressed regarding the lifecycle management to make this make more sense to me. So I will hang around for a bit.