What's the difference between Early Access & Open Alpha/Beta?

Okay, just hear me out.

My personal pet peeve of Early Access is that it's treated as a launch date while it's actually not. For instance, Diablo II Resurrected's open beta is now live, but the official launch date is Sept 22, which is the way things should be. But then we have games like Baldur's Gate III, Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness and King Arthur: A Knights tale where if you were to google up their release dates, you get their early access date, and then you have to do some research to find out whether it's a full release or an Early Access date.

My question is, when did it become okay to pass off the release date of a game still under testing as a release date? To me, an Early Access is essentially an Open Beta/Alpha - not going to argue semantics here, but it's a game with open testing. It's unfinished, and don't make it appear like there's a release date yet.

And if any of you wonder why this bothers me, I'll just use this analogy - Let's say you googled up the release date for a movie, and say the release is....20th December 2021. Come 19th December, you realize that the date is not a theatrical release. It's a screening date for the post production cut of the movie, where fans can participate and give feedback for which scenes they feel should be in the movie or not. Now, that's all fine and good, but don't pass off this date as if it's a release date, because it's not.

Alpha and Betas to public is 100% to collect data and improve functions the developer has overlooked. It is limited, it is brief, but useful to the quality of the game. Betas usually focus on a small amont of content and better referred to as 'stress tests'

Early Access is buying the full product regardless of the state the game is currently, a promise of sorts to an eventual final product. So much like a beta is early in its development and full of glitches/ bugs, though usually not offering things so limited and everything the developer has at the given time, so other words more packed with content, flawed as that content can be.

Some developers collect data from Early Access but also some do not use any collected data. Early Access for a lot of developers is an excuse to not build upon the games failures and sell a flawed product with empty promises of finishing the game. While some use the Early Access model very well (Larian Studios); many do not.

I'd say @RSM-HQ: basically has it right, but I will add one thing. With early access, finished or not you own the game. Maybe it will never get to a complete state, but it's yours to play evermore, for better or worse. Beta-testing is temporary. Once the beta is over, you are cut off.

The system gets abused, and there are pros and cons to it. But overall, I like that early access is a option for developers now. I honestly think it has made it possible to fund games that would never have been released otherwise.