It was well known before the cut-off that it this was happening, they were adding the game to steam and transferring the whole process to that platform rather than their own, and its probably more hassle than its worth to give us the standard version, also sell a deluxe version, and add a £3 upgrade option for early backers. Im also sure they'd always said it'd be £30 on release... its £27 for basic, £30 for deluxe, so it could be argued that the expected saving wasnt what they'd promised, but i cant imagine anyone noticed and cared, we're still getting a great deal.
I hadnt heard the beta was starting next week though, bit poor that its such a short timeframe IMO, could understand if they were having 2 betas but not sure what reason there is not to make it a week long thing at least, theres 7wk till release, 6 when this happens, so not like its being launched a couple weeks later. I've not heard of it including new features, ie v4, but i'd assume it must be more than taking 'alpha 3' and just renaming it 'beta', but it'd be nice if there was more of the core game in there, the creation stuff is amazing, but it still seems the core management aspect is missing meaning a key aspect cant be evaluated. Sandbox looks fantastic though, can imagine spending a lot of time in there, but the 'game' element, the challenge, we've not seen yet, so i really hope thats on show.