It's hardly "lots of returns". There's a couple of cards that have been shown that have incinerated themselves, and a few with ROPs missing, and that's worldwide. Even with low supply and long queues, it's hardly likely to make a massive difference to queue times, I'd not think. Personally, were I in your position, I'd also be dropping out of the queue, but only to wait for the inevitable price normalisation, rather than worries over a tiny number of problems.
Of course it sucks if you get a card with an issue, and there should be no cards burning up or with missing ROPs, but I think it's hardly a massive number.