> must own at least one app in App Store to be eligible for beta access

That doesn't work for many reasons. App Review, as if they didn't have enough of a hard time with a bad reputation, would just be flooded by trash from first time developers or contract developers/companies that just created an account. Apple could make it mandatory to install using Xcode, but in the past, Xcode upgrades have bricked devices where iTunes doesn't. So I have a feeling that's not really a priority and more of a burden. Plus, it's braindead simple to install and use Xcode to install betas, and anyone desperate enough to pay $10 but not $100 should easily be able to get around that.

I really think all Apple needs to do is to block reviews from iOS 5 devices. Developers running betas won't be reviewing apps in the store (that's incredibly hypocritical and cruel if so) so nobody's going to be missing that. This doesn't harm beta testers and devs that want to install iOS betas.

Blocking access to devs who don't have an app in the store is counterproductive, because that prevents the developers from testing against the latest iOS and finding bugs -- which is the entire point of access to the iOS beta! Not to mention some devs might be working for other clients and not yet shipped something themselves (as in my case).

Requiring installs via Xcode would only be a temporary slowdown before someone figures out the secret handshake and hacks around it.

Blocking reviews from devices with the latest iOS beta installed should be sufficient to eliminate most of these unfair reviews.