The calipers normally come with the piston pushed all the way into the caliper body, when you first install, the caliper should slide down into place fairly easily. Turning the rotor at this point is fairly easy as the pads are probably not touching or may have a very slight rub. There will be some resistance to rotating due to the grease seal but an experienced hand can tell the difference between this and if something is actually binding. Then when you bleed the calipers the piston moves out to take up any gap, of course pressing the pedal will not allow the rotors to turn by hand. Release the pedal and the pistons releases pressure ever so slightly, it will not move inward enough to create a gap again but just enough to allow you to turn rotor by hand. Resistance will be felt but not enough to cause alarm.
I am wondering if you saw the thinner outer pad after driving it some and panicked and thought you wore out the outer pad? It comes this way out of the box.
With the wheels/tires installed you can turn the wheel a little easier but some (small amount) of resistance can still be noticed.
If the outer pads actually wore after only 200 miles the rotors would be blued from heat(probably smoking too) and the car would probably come to a stop on it's own.
