i don't have any idea why they won't show you the phone. it isn't a traditional "advertising" decision. maybe it is because they want to chain the phones down before letting customers handle them, so they don't get stolen. maybe it is because the corporate insurance that sprint has does not allow it for some good reason that we don't know. maybe it is because those phones are intended to train employees only and they don't want customers fooling with those stock devices. maybe HTC prohibits it. my guess is it is actually an insurance issue.
i used to work in retail years ago. there would be times that i had products in the back that i couldn't sell because they weren't in the computer system. there was no SKU for them. therefore, there was no way to track their sales, which meant we had no way to track "shrinkage" (retail lingo for "theft" bascially). so, because i couldn't sell them, i didn't let customers see them. i, of course, didn't even tell them i had the product.
again, i don't know. but i feel like people love the conspiracy theory angle or the "sprint is soooooo stoopid" angle. there could be a great reason that we don't know.
