I know on the Mac side of things Rob has been good at posting early versions for testing. But the uptake on people downloading and getting the opportunity (clear night) to test is pretty low. I often download the early release to test, but didn't really get a chance to test until 3.1.1 came out.
But I absolutely agree. There are so many novices trying out EKOS for the first time, and almost every point release has had show stopping bugs in some part of the application. Whether it was plate solving, scheduler, focusing, guiding, etc. Something minor creeps in and causes an issue. With all the new people, getting a first opportunity to check out KStars/EKOS for the first time, there is a high probability that they will not get it to work and opt to use a different set of applications instead.
First impressions are huge, and the less technically inclined will easily overlook the benefits of the program if their first impression is that it doesn't work, or is difficult to get going. If there were a systematic approach to releases that involves some quality testing, I think it would improve things. But we have to have people willing to download and test.