Hi Tam…
I agree, software companies should not make its PAYING customers Beta testers. They either need to scale back release feature sets to more comfortably fit the realistic deadlines that the market and their stock holders demand, adjust the release cycles to to fit feature sets, or hire more coders and testers to meet the exiting time frame and feature sets.
All that being said….as a rule of thumb, I always suggest that people not buy a “dot zero release.” This rarely seems to go smoothly. It is tempting however, because manufacturers offer such great incentives to upgrade when the new version is released. Maybe a buy and hold policy might work. Buy the upgrade to take advantage of the pricing, but hold it until the first couple point releases, then if possible, do a gradual deployment, so it can be tested within the work flow for potential work stoppages.
I feel you frustration, and am not excusing anything. Just making some suggestions for how to deal with it on you end.
Best of luck,
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX
Younversity TV
http://www.youniversity.tv