Originally posted by Arc:

Discord is the new hot sh*t !!

Joke's asside, the process exist as it requires some dedication from the end-user.
This is likely both to prevent accidental opt-ins and to at least try to push users to actually test it out and report issues rather than just have early updates and try to play on those.

You'd be surprised how many players opted in experimental branches of their games and complained about issues steming from these unstable builds.

Oh I understand the desire to playtest a new patch before releasing it to the stable branch completely. I have many Early access titles and non EA titles in my library that adopt the same process and I have participated in almost all of their unstable branch experimentation and feedback processes.
This is nothing new to me at all and I am not surprised, since the majority of players that opt in, do so just to get an earlier chance to play new content rather than proactively participate in playtesting and providing feedback.
However, none of those other studios have stuck that access to the the experimental branch behind a proprietary version of IRC with a smartphone ID gateway on their channel o.O
I mean, what is with keeping it so private? It makes no sense and nor does the invitation to participate, only to uninstall the Discord app afterwards.
Thanks, but no thanks.