The version in question is not suitable for public crash testing, which is what a beta release
is usually intended for and which is why the developers who handle field testing using the beta
releases intentionally did not add it to their beacon at
http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/files/beta/update.dat
So it does exist in the public pool as an alpha beta, but it was not released for use in their field testing
since it was only thrown out there to show us a few features they're adding.
So in that context I would go as far as to say it is correctly a beta, in alpha status. I would assume when they
are using the term "Alpha" to describe the beta, where "Alpha" usually means something like top order, they are
describing it as being in a volatile high order of beta status, where a few things are very new and probably have just been
implemented from concept, not fully assured the file may not incidentally backfire and spin your hard drive
so fast that it explodes and embeds some shrapnel in your chine.
As for incorrect version comparing, does it really matter? The statement checks for a change in the string
where any difference would trigger an update be it a lower or higher version, the thing is, will the
developers ever add a lower version number that would cause scripts/apps like this one to incidentally
downgrade to a lower AutoIt version and frustrate a user or screw with people who did sloppy version comparing?