DCS World is always going to be in transition and evolving. There are always going to be new features added and old features revised, so yes - the alpha versus beta discussion has little meaning in that context.
Where it does make sense is in the context of the aircraft modules. I see your point about lack of feature lock clouding the argument, but an aircraft is a tangible, finite whole at the end of the day. If the ADI, HSI and front landing gear were missing, for example, that would clearly not be beta because those elements constitute a basic level of functionality for the aircraft in question.
If, by contrast, certain features of the aircraft are acknowledged to be missing at launch then it's not a beta. This has been the case with multiple modules lately. Incomplete aircraft have been released along with "we know that features X, Y and Z are missing, but we'll get to them later" caveats from the various developers. That's not "beta" by any definition of that I've worked with during 20 years of games development.
Take this approach to its logical extreme and you could argue that someone could release an Apache beta that's just the CP/G's cockpit along with the argument that "Don't worry - it's a beta. We'll add the pilot's cockpit and the actual helicopter a little later. Probably."
My point wasn't to use "alpha" as a pejorative. My point was that I'd like to see more honesty about the actual phase of development.
It's clear that nothing's going to change, though, so the whole discussion is somewhat moot.
