This beta is not intended to get large exposure. It's intended to get a group of people who we are confident will be dedicated to helping us make Atlas a better product.
You wouldn't be the first company to start with these intentions, only to eventually widen the open source/commercial split, where features never reach the open source edition. It's a possibility, however remote you might consider it, that we have to anticipate and plan for.
If the tools save time and money, we'll buy it, but we also have to consider potential lock-in costs a very real part of the price.
This beta is not intended to get large exposure. It's intended to get a group of people who we are confident will be dedicated to helping us make Atlas a better product.
If we're supposed to be helping you, it seems inappropriate to charge.
I'm not telling you this to be offensive. I'm doing so because it's clear you're alienating people who would both test and evangelize, and I think that's an unfortunate waste for a product I think has great potential (but is much, much too veiled in secrecy and a general lack of public information).
If you think the opinion isn't valuable, you're also just as free to ignore it as you see fit (... but given that I've contributed patches to Cappuccino in the past, I'm pretty surprised you don't think I'm in your 'target audience' just because I'm not excited to pay $20 AND test your software for free.)
If doing that doesn't float your boat, then working with rough, buggy, pre-release software that may never love you back probably isn't going to be your thing either. Then you're out $20 and wish you'd bought the coffee. For their intended market, I think this program was priced right.