You still have to buy the release version, being in the beta doesn't give you any sort of discount on the final product.
This is an example of the bean counters at Microsoft starting to take over. That isn't a good thing for a tech company.
Oh I realize that. I just don't think $1.50 isn't that big of a deal. I think this is going to be one of those things that people get all bent out of shape about because "M$ is screwing us again!".
If Adobe decided to charge $1.50 to download the beta version of their latest CS suite, I wouldn't be too worried about it.