Version 0.18.2

[BlueTemplar]

[...] To the extreme example, that they might say: "Playing <a game> was a waste of five hours of my life. I want my money and my time back." A paid tester could never honestly say something like that, because it was not. He/She got paid for playing it.

Might be still a waste depends on how much he/she was paid, how much he/she valued his/her time and how much he/she expected to enjoy the game compared to how much he/she did...
("I'd rather give back the money but have my time back !" ?)

[...] risking [...] bad ratings, which can not be undone.[...]

Factorio doesn't even *have* Metacritic ratings yet, being an "unreleased" game.
And IIRC Steam separates Early Access and post-release ratings ?

[conn11]

Or that time when the rectengular landfill graphic was changed to the square one, put forth by the community.
The main point is, even on latest experimental, seldomly game chrashing or crippeling technical issues arise. The rest is furniture, you like it you don't like it, but our (the playerbase) feedback gets definetly heard. Better than commenting on some frames in the fff and only beeing able to enjoy them after months, when all of the development work is likely already completed or the art style is set.