I can't imagine why anyone, "just work" type or not, would want to use an alpha

The same reason anyone would want to be an alpha or beta tester for any product. In this case, to help the empeg guys test it, to reports specific results, so that future releases can fix those bugs and be stable enough for the general public.

Also, you might want to be a tester because you want to see new features before everyone else does. In your case, that feature was Ogg playback.

Usually, the "just work" types aren't in the same category as people who would want to be beta testers.