But the scarcity of the 'scopes for actual purchase ... what's the deal with that?
Artificial scarcity to make people who cannot afford to be back-ordered for weeks pony up for the DS1074Z, DS2072A or other models in the $600-1000 range.
It could genuinely be the difficulty of ramping up production
The DS1054Z is exactly the same scope as all the other DS1xxxZ, so the production should be fairly well sorted out by now. Well, exactly the same except for the stickers with the model number on it.
OK, that's up to you.
Does the warranty sticker have some indication that shows how often it has been breached ?
Or: who's going to know (or care) how many times it has been opened if once is already too much ?
I think he meant the waxed paper trick to remove warranty seals without breaking them. If I did that, I would simply leave the sticker on the waxed paper and only re-apply it if I need to send the scope back for warranty. Once the seal is broken, it is broken and usually quite obvious.