Definitely going Pixel, none of that stuff is really worth it. I don't need to be immortalized for buying it, I'll live on forever with the things I build in it.
News on this game tends to be a bit sparse, and I guess nobody wanted to bump it up giving people false hope of good news. I hope they get what they need to work on the game full time. They've already got me at Pixel tier.
Unknown, though I'd think if the beta comes out and the game isn't released yet, technically they'd still keep this up for pre-ordering, which I would assume would get you beta access.