This is just another desperate attempt to get some cash flow, I don't think they've even managed to ship the gen1 phone to all the backers yet.

This is not a desperate attempt, it is another service offering to align with their privacy focused hardware and software products.

They have been very open and honest about any delays in the shipping of the phones. Evergreen batches are nearly a month away. So they haven’t “managed” that yet because the process has not completed yet.