Not really that great leap of faith mate. Stardock tends to be reliable in it's products.
Let's compare my experiences with two preorders from two different publishers.
First we have Stardock and often lamented Elemental.
Regardless of what someone might think of the game, it works and is perfectly playable. But SD decided it was not good enough so I got all kinds of stuff as compensation.
Then there is this AAA-grade game, Assassin's Creed 4. Preorder, played happily for a month or so. This year decided to play more in January.
Savegame not working. Little look into forums and savegames for that game are constantly failing for lots of people. I hope we all agree that savegame working and not losing progress is pretty essential for a game? After couple months of constant hand wrestling I finally got them to refund the game! Savegames are still shot to hell by the way, apparently they just do not give a crap.
So, based on this experience... I really can't see SD as risky investment. And certain other company is going to have to come up with something insanely good for me to give them any of my money.