I emailed Shaun and got the following reply.

"Thanks for bringing this up… as it is rather confusing. The changes to the Benefactor program last December involved the splitting of the marketing/sponsorship benefits ( “Sponsorship” ) from the support/product benefits ( “Subscriptions” ). Under the new model, Sponsors no longer have early access to Beta releases – this is only available to Subscribers. And linking this back to the old system, the Platinum Benefactors who had early access to Beta releases have now become Bronze Subscribers. I think my posting in the forum was not accurate, which probably caused confusion."

Cathal