@Voyaging Thanks for mentioning this issue as I think it’s an important one to think about!
I was thinking the same thing about the beta curriculum back in October, which is why, at that time, I pushed to use the current curriculum instead. 
After reviewing the Responsive Web Design beta curriculum more closely, I realized that most of it is focused on the projects.
You may notice in the schedule that there’s really only about 10 days devoted to the challenges and the rest of the time is focused on the projects. With the beta curriculum, the projects have automated tests that one needs to (or is encouraged to) pass before submitting the project as complete. It is currently possible to add the automated test suites to our projects right now! I’ve added it to the tribute and portfolio projects I’ve already completed using the current curriculum, in case you’re curious about how it works or what it looks like.
So, even though we can’t use fCC to track our progress with the challenges right now, we will be ready to submit our projects to fCC once we’re finished in April, assuming the beta curriculum is officially released by that time. We’ll also be in a position to transition over to tracking our progress via fCC if the beta curriculum becomes official sooner.
Given that there are lots of people working on finishing the beta curriculum and the word is that it’ll be official soon, along with the idea that the section we’re working on is mostly made up of projects, I think it makes sense to start on the beta curriculum now and fill in our progress when the beta becomes official.
What do you think? Thanks again for the comment! 