I treat the beta as an early preview of the game. Its nice being able to see what the game is like and what the classes do. I don't think anyone died before Andariel back in Diablo 2 and the Skeleton King is nowhere near that.
I don't know if any of you remember D2 beta, but all it had was the barbarian class and progression was limited to blood raven. Finding a gem shrine was like whoaaaa and it took a while before we figured out that activating a gem shrine with a gem in your inventory would yield a higher quality version of the gem... and the new gem would drop on the floor for anyone to pick up. Its like a precursor for the fastest fingers looting. Also, D3 beta plays like a mini game all on its own; much more content than D2 beta.
Speaking of blood raven, according to the storyline, she was the rogue from D1, the summoner in act 2 was the sorcerer and the dark wanderer was the warrior.