A lot of games don't wipe their *final wave* of *beta testing*, but alpha?

This is the key point and i think part of the misunderstanding, and maybe a mistake from the devs. I dont feel and i dont think we are in alpha, it's more like a long beta and sometimes i play it like a finished game. The devs say alpha to lower the pressure from players or mmo websites. That said, players who dont know the game will just take the option to wait after "alpha" when they could just hop on now and have fun with us, removing their potential gap at release.