That would work if they sold us the phones.

I think they have arranged it like a developer (and "community" if you like) program, where, if you pay your fee, you get courses, event subscriptions for a year, and then, they "loan" you the device, with the clause that you can keep it after the subscription ends.

It makes kind of sense as a developer program, if I were not interested in tinkering with it, I would not think about getting on the program.

On the other hand, they say they will reimburse/replace the device if it is dead on arrival, and they will actually try to support it anyway, in a best effort kind of way. That is what I read between the lines of the various statements I have read.

I am not overly worried about the warranty in this case: typically, electronic devices break either immediately, or just after the warranty period has expired (or sometimes they keep working indefinitely).