Are RC builds still considered Beta for purposes of how I should approach them?

I don't mind being a bit more on the bleeding edge, and I don't want to maintain a virtual machine to review builds, either. I'd rather provide feedback from actual use. Is there a point in the release cycle where you encourage broader testing for folks that would be willing to help test but are less willing to expose themselves to potential data loss?

For instance, I'd typically assume RC builds are being evaluated as "release candidates" and are at a point where catastrophic data loss issues should have already been addressed. However, the warnings you have attached to the RC build announcement suggest otherwise.