Personally I don't expect minor fixes in a **beta** branch to be tiny packages that tweak existing files (like a proper finished patch). I'm fine with the large size of even the hotfixes. But, somehow the pace of change is too fast and too slow. I can barely get a working list of mods together before, despite my specifically choosing a beta branch the game updates whether I want it or not.
In other games I've done QA for there was always a way (outside the beta process) to pick a patch level and have it in your control whether or not it updates (well, whether or not you update), but having both the main line and beta lines on hotfixes makes it hard to test or not test the game. Either way things will change whether you want them to or not. I know hotfixes are important, but maybe keep a stable line out there that has announcements before forced updates. Like 1.0.2 could be "depricated, not to be updated further" while 1.0.3 is "likely to be hotfixed in the near future" and 1.1.0 beta "will likely be continually hotfixed".
Or maybe that is just me. I found it amusing that I couldn't launch this morning because of a hotfix downloading and when I came back from work hours later a different hotfix was downloading. Fantastic that things are being worked on, but from and end user perspective I have no problem saying that I'm playing other games instead of M+B, which if a general trend, would be worrisome.