Well, duh! Lots of companies give out samples.
Microchip- and many others- will not give out samples to generic email accounts (hotmail, etc) and may have other limitations. IIRC Microchip at least hesitates to send samples to other countries. The primary reason is supposed to be people abusing the system by just looking up your 100 relatives and people you know with different addresses. Get 100 hotmail accounts, max out what you can sample for each address from Microchip, then Maxim, TI, etc and move on down the list. Soon you'll have thousands of dollars in "free" parts and you move them on eBay or whatever.
Microchip samples are NOT substandard parts. They may or may not be an early rev. The rev is readily apparent and will likely be disclosed on the BOM. However, IIRC they do usually provide samples of the latest silicon. As mentioned, it does not serve your company's needs to send out defective parts to people who are considering buying your product. Who would buy if the samples failed during your product evaluation?
Samples are ideally intended for actual companies, rather than hobbyists who need free products. I have had mfgs who would not provide samples without being able to find an official website for your company. However, it is often in the company's best interest to grow the product by encouraging hobbyists to play and write up projects and demo code, the part cost is not too high, and it's not worth their time and certainly not worth potentially insulting your intended customers by questioning if they are "legitimate" to their faces.