I doubt I'm the only one here who would pick up a copy right now to support you, to get around the free limits.
Part of my issue is this: How are we supposed to keep submitting bugs, if we can't really test all that much? You will end up with a massive wave of reports from the bigger projects once people can sub. Wouldn't it make sense to allow a small amount of people to sub now to ease the process?
Ive already mentioned this before and think it should have been implemented. Im sure there are reasons why it wasnt. To be honest, the wait until release isnt that far off. I understand the frustration though.