There never was a smooth launch. Never had enough. Although, this year, they under estimate how much gold color would be popular.It may just be personal preception, however this launch doesn't feel as smooth, or as plentiful as previous years.
I still think the inventory was a bit thin to begin with. No Preorders meant that people who wanted to order online had to do it at Midnight in order to have had it ship by now. Many people who did go that route, are still waiting for delivery for their device. It is not hard to predict that the lack of pre-orders would also push buyers into the retail stores in order for them to have an early copy of the 5S.
I am personally waiting until the hype dies down a bit, as I am fine running my existing iPhone. That said, it is hard to ignore the many threads on this topic within the iPhone forum here on MacRumors, and on various other tech sites / Podcasts.
I hope hype is always there.