IMO, it´s the right way to involve us in that early stage of development, so we´ll get a software that fits our needs. The more people are doing the beta test, the better it is for the final release. I agree, the beta forum at Serif is great to share and discuss our opinions on bugs and features.
The integration of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer will definitely make the Serif software an eco system for print publishing on its own. As long as Adobe won´t return to offer a perpetual license or give us a a newspaper license, I'm going to move away, too.