I think the forums can be quite misleading. If you look through the entire history of the Sins forums, public opinion has been very very good. However, people's praise doesn't lend itself to the creation of lengthy or bumped threads. Also, since it is beta, we've asked people to write up what problems they are having so we can fix them so it gives the appearance of negativity. Finally, a lot of the players have been around for a long time and have already delivered their praise but are continually, and actively hunting down bugs and potential problems so that's all you really hear about. It's probably a bit much to ask anyone to search through the whole history to see what I mean but here is one thread that tries to collect some people's non-bug report opinions.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?forumid=440&aid=155866#1385823

In summary, an open beta tends to lead to the appearance of a game that everyone hates even when they don't, but its worth doing because with the community's input the final product is just so much better.