No, for those of us that pre-ordered early, there was no "real" information on how things would go down. The only thing stated was that there would be "early game access". In fact, there wasn't even a release date announced until late September. Not until these last few months was it shared that those pre-ordering would get "up to 5 days" of early game time. I think this is why so many are unhappy with this staggered launch. If it had been made known early on that those that pre-ordered first would get in first, my guess is that there would have been an even higher number of orders in July.
Basically, I don't think majority (until recently) were prepared for any type of staggered launch, as it was never stated back in July, nor is it something we've seen MMOs do in the past. Even though I did pre-order early, I can see why so many are irate over this launch. Had Bioware shared at the start that those purchasing first would get 24-96 hour "head starts" then I think we'd be seeing a lot less drama. However, they did not....and here we are.