I kinda get the limited availability part, but the same goes for handpicked engineering samples and alot of other stuff we deal with every day.
The ROG expander doesn't add anything that you can't do on other boards of similar quality (E762 for example...), so if you can't get the expander, try to get the E762 and see what you can do with it. It's not like the expander gives you a 20% boost in benchmarks:p
Plus, the rules are very easy to handle atm - retail availability on the other hand is difficult to define. I can't buy a 580 CU here in Norway atm, so I have no retail channels I can use to get one. It wouldn't be an improvement of the rules if a part is "available" when you can buy it in the US, Germany and Taiwan. but there are 100+ countries where you can't buy it. Then we can apply the following rule: no part is allowed unless you can buy it in EVERYcountry in the world. Bye bye HWBot, I wonder how many GTX580's they have in North Korea:D Probably just as many 580's as they have Expanders;)