Pete, It works that way in the motorcar, jetski, motorbike n boating industries, but pinball is a weird world.
My guess is probably yes, but the discount structure would not be hugely different. These days, the dealers have to fight over the very limited LE stock, so maybe its only on Pro stock...not enough BNIB Stern dealers in Australia to get enough public info really.
When i am in Sydney again, I will take a video of the AMD showroom band new Stern machine line up which is impressive, with Bruces permission.
That way I can share it with the melb guys who are interested in seeing what i think looks great.