I think it's quite cleaver actually. As far as I'm concerned, their collective effort in doing this helps minimize their weaknesses that manifest themselves by being a small indie team.
They don't have much headroom for marketing. In fact, I doubt they have anyone who's dedicated to marketing the game to the masses; and if they do, They probably don't have much experience at it. Instead, they utilized a brilliant alternative to traditional marketing by using their strongest fan base to help promote the game for a prize in a secured call sign. Their biggest asset right now is the core group of fans who have discovered and want their project to succeed. They know that their best fans want to see the game become a success and keep going in the future and will do things to prevent the downfall of something they like. They also know that their fans also want to be the first ones bust through the door to play it, and want to get their names reserved first.
By implementing their strategy in this way, they satisfy 3 needs. 1) To figure out a way to market the game without expending an excessive amount of resources and start up costs. 2) Satisfy the needs of their core fan base for exclusivity by the incentive of a reward of first-in-line priority over other players for callsigns, and 3) gather a large group of testers for the game by utilizing an incentive of priority to spread word about the upcoming beta; thereby gathering large quantities of needed testing and information impossible by themselves alone.
