Except that developers are not even given the chance to fix issues before Johnny Public is allowed to start rating apps. The whole point of the beta is to ALLOW the developer to test their apps and find the bugs, as well as to iron out the bugs in the core OS. What if it is an issue with a core API that is now returning something that it shouldn't and it wasn't caught by Apple in testing, then the developer is getting blamed for something they can't even fix.

You have to be a part of the developer program ($99) to get pre-release software, and as part of that you go with the understanding that it isn't meant for everyday use.

Johnny Public shouldn't be running the beta in the first place. If by the time iOS 5 is out the developer still hasn't fixed the bugs in their app, THEN it is perfectly fine to start leaving bad reviews as the developer has had plenty of time to fix their app, but during the beta period, no.

It is additionally time consuming building work arounds for issues that might be altered by the time the OS makes it to gold master. Beta is beta, it might mean the OS does not work with your app not your app does not work in the OS.

I guess the grandparent was suggesting that, yes, it’s unfair but Apple has no incentive for banning reviews. They are ok with users heckling developers for updates since developers aren’t exactly scarce.

Really Apple should't be making changes that break apps between one major release and another. There should be at least one round of deprecation first. Microsoft used to be really good about this kind of thing. Admittedly Apple has always been much more willing to break working code.