Back in the WinXP -> Vista days that's what a lot of computer manufacturers did. People were refusing to buy Vista computers. But Microsoft only allowed the companies to sell the computers with Vista pre-installed, not WinXP.
So the companies bought copies of WinXP and gave them away with the computers, so that the users could downgrade after purchase.
And after a while, some companies even offered to do the "downgrade" after the sale but prior to delivery.
Microsoft demanded that they still count the sale as a "Vista sale". It was a total charade.
I can’t downgrade [there’s irony] this laptop because there are no Win7 drivers for the hardware.
I. Am. Trapped.