Fecam, I'm not looking to take the piss here, but might the fact that you're somewhat less than thrilled about there being loads of cheap copies of the LP floating about have anything to do with you currently having an unplayed spare on discogs for £50 (as well as copies of other previous releases)?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put you on blast, tar you with the reseller brush or anything of the kind as I know you're a good guy and longtime fellow P fan. I'm surprised at the vehemence of your reaction and you accusing Thes of intentional wrongdoing/profiteering however (Can you prove any of it..?) when we both know full well things like these are more or less par for the course with "limited" and "exclusive" releases nowadays:
Artists and labels will try and sell as many copies as they can directly (usually at premium/increasingly outrageous prices) pressuring their fans by claiming their releases are "extremely limited" and/or "exclusive" to a certain (= their own) shop, bandcamp page, etc. only to make any remaining copies available to regular stockists shortly thereafter (= once the initial wave of sales is over and it becomes increasingly inconvenient/less lucrative to continue selling directly), which often works out being a good bit cheaper (especially if you happen to live in a different country than the artist/label and can buy locally rather than internationally later on).
For what it's worth I completely agree with you that this is decidedly messed up and usually at the expense of hardcore fans who end up paying considerably more than they ideally would/should have (even if it's "just" for postage, which the artist doesn't make any extra money from).
I'll go a step further playing devil's advocate stating that Thes would have received complaints regardless of how he handled this release:
We know him to be a DIY perfectionist who by his own admission has trouble delegating or outsourcing bacause he doesn't trust anyone else to do things up to his own standards (and has been burned in the past relying on others), so I believe that is the #1 reason why he wouldn't/couldn't do things any other way.
In this instance he ended up supplying more (= too many; I'm guessing ~2000 total) copies of the record than there was a demand for, resulting in the "leftover" copies you're now fussing about. If he'd pressed up too few you'd have people asking for/demanding an immediate repress which would be equally undesirable. (I wouldn't be surprised if this more or less balanced out over the coming years though. Contrary to popular misconception previous releases/albums did not sell out quickly or overnight either - e.g. I seem to recall it taking at least 6-12 months to shift all 2000 copies of 'Highlighter'.)
Then there's the international (re-)distribution of the record to consider:
The LP was pressed by GZ in the Czech Republic (same as the last 3-4 records), meaning all copies sold directly via puts.band had to be imported to the US and those headed back to Europe or other destinations had essentially made a round trip being re-imported by the time they touched down in the UK, etc..
I have it on good authority that copies sold by hhv here in Germany apparently weren't sent to the US though and supposedly came directly from GZ (directly across the border in Czech). This might account for the lower prices within Europe to some degree? I honestly couldn't say what kind of percentages/discounts we'd be looking at though + I can't speak to any additional bulk/distro cuts that might have been made in order to shift "leftover" copies either.
Which brings us to those selling the record cheaply now:
I'm also not happy about copies ending up with Jeff Bezos and his paragons of inhumane work environments (if anyone hasn't read the various exposés on how amazon treat their workforce you might want to brush up on it before placing your next order) but some quick research reveals amazon.uk are the only ones stocking/selling copies directly. All other copies in the marketplace are being sold by private/3rd party sellers. I have difficulty imagining Thes dealing with amazon directly or vice versa, so those copies probably came from some distributor?
And is it possible amazon even showing any interest in selling the vinyl in the first place might be a side-effect of the #putsmatters digital preorder campaign you mentioned, putting the physical album on their radar via the great interest in digital sales..?
Anyway, I feel as though I've already rambled on way too long (as usual) but figured I'd weigh in in hopes of adding a bit of perspective.