If people bought more stuff from seeed studio which is in that business model, than perhaps LG or Apple or Philips which is not in that business model, then China would be better known for open source stuff.
I've bought stuff from seeed studio before. Nice stuff, nice people. Obviously your mileage may vary WRT individual pieces of hardware.
For example connected stuff(either to app or site). Also there's a case to be made for letting people change the embedded software inside their bluetooth headphones, noise cancelling earphones, routers,mp3 players[1], android tv boxes, and any other products with complex software.
I've bought stuff from seeed studio before. Nice stuff, nice people. Obviously your mileage may vary WRT individual pieces of hardware.