When I preordered BF3, I did so through NewEgg so I would have the physical media. I did this for two reasons... one, I have no idea if EA's online store (Origin) will be able to handle the amount of people who will be trying to download the game on release... two, because I don't want to chance getting a corrupted download and have to waste that much more bandwidth and time to download it again.
I do realize that I may not receive the game on the release date but I am OK with that as I will probably be working anyway. But I also realize that by buying the physical media from someone other than the publisher I am helping out the one I buy it from (good point, Slay).