Quick idea for the devs, on how to make a quick buck.

EA (early access)

$10 to access the closed beta + get some forum title or something small to their name to allow people already
in the beta to fork out the cash if they really want to support the company.

The money will go towards development of the game, waiting too long PoE will miss out on a lot of hype when Diablo3 and Torchlight2 comes out. If people want to try out PoE now and they have he money, simply let them.

I just wonder why they haven't done it already, a lot of people would be willing to help finance this game for beta access.

Myself and some other guys have asked questions like this in the past. I remember a guildmate of mine offered to invest $10k into the company shortly before they went into closed beta (In July, I think it was) and the response was basically "we have enough money to get the game to release, and we don't want to sell beta access"

They just don't want to charge for an unfinished game.