I think it is an improvement. That said I dont think there are many beta testers out here so no-one is finding the bugs. If there are any bugs
I wonder if there is also a problem in the upgrade path. The beta release is only good for a clean install on a new site. I do not know if they have developed a upgrade option to migrate the database from 2.1 to 2.2. Nor how the templates (both client and admin) can be migrated given that they will have been changed by us.
I would be interested in an answer to this. I would like to know when 2.2 will move on. It has too many nice things that I am itching to use on my 2.1 site.
Since 2.2 uses the same modules as 2.1 it may be that the upgrade path is not as bad I think. However we are working in an information vacuum. It would be nice to see it filled.