There is software that approaches barely functional after dozens of rounds of QA testing, and then there is software that is implemented on a solid foundation with care and happens to have a few bugs. Unfortunately that many bugs in a beta implies the former. I think the thread comes from a disappointment that Apple is moving from the second category to the first.
But it is not even a "Consumer Beta" it is a developer beta- for catching bugs and allowing devs to create applications for new APIs while Apple polishes the build for release? Was snow leopard ever released as a dev beta even?
There wasn't a customer beta program at the time IIRC. Either way, as a dev you'd still want to test on an OS after a year of work even if there weren't "new features".
Bug fixes and performance work on the OS are even more likely to break your app than feature work is! Bug fixes in the OS are pretty likely to cause new bugs too…
