GrandCentral: One Number For Life. Or Per Year. Maybe

OK, so GrandCentral under Google is now 0 for 2. First they turned off the custom MP3 feature, and now they're dropping "a very small number" of the phone numbers that have already been issued:

Hmm. Wasn't the whole point to quit giving out your home/work/mobile numbers, and instead steer everyone to this cool new GrandCentral number "that you can keep for life"?

I like GrandCentral -- it's a cool service with lots of potential. And I've yet to start relying on it as my primary contact number, so this change isn't a huge inconvenience for me. But it is annoying, and a good reminder that beta services are often just that.