In fact if I read the announcement correctly this was Nokia's compromise to the community asking for a "publically" available firmware testing. Nokia doesn't want to send it out easily before it's ready.. but was willing to select a few of the "community" to give it to just to see what kind of real-world scenario's cause problems.

Does it suck waiting for firmware updates to fix problems on your device you bought? Yes of course. But this problem exists in all devices. People screamed the G1 sucked until Cupcake... which took a while. But now I don't even think the G1 will get Donut, and myTouch/Cliq I don't think will get Eclair. At least, not without root.

Such is life.