You're correct. In the coming weeks Kenzer & Co. will be offering the Player's Handbook for pre-order. If you pre-order you'll get access to the beta pdf of the Player's Handbook, same as they offered with the Hacklopedia pre-order. The idea and hope is that gamers will pre-order the Player's Handbook and use the information in the book in their campaign, posting questions and comments about their experience on the Kenzer & Co. HackMaster message boards. The designers would then keep these discussions in mind as they get ready to go to print with a final edition.
At least this is what I've been lead to believe by posts on the HackMaster boards by the good folks at Kenzer.