Once again, too many assumptions in this thread.
Nobody knows if this is an intentional thing, a bug or a limitation.
It's the same thing we had in the previous alpha patch all over again.
People wanted a patch so we got an interim one that was DX10 only. Since the effects are done in DX9 they were not included in the patch. Then people assumed that cutting effects was a "trick" to boost FPS and not something that was brought about by our own desire to get a patch at whatever cost. Then they didn't want DX9 support, even though they wanted the effects.
Now we get effects back and people say they like it, despite the fact that they didn't want to support the API that effects were coded on.
Apparently all that is not irrational and self-contradicting enough, so we get the same thing this week as well with another feature/bug/whatever
As for what is a beta, it's a test. It doesn't promise to improve anything, it promises to test if the improvements work and if they don't, find out what doesn't work so that it can be fixed.
If we want to debate whether speedtree was a good choice or not, we can. But assuming too much while knowing too little will only result in us contradicting ourselves and looking like fools. Why don't we just do what the beta is supposed to be? Download if we want to test, then test and report?
