The freeze of sid leading up to a release is pretty annoying. I think as a project management issue it's pretty important though, if you believe in the value of a stable release. You have to have a stick that makes it unavoidably important to stabilize your continuous development line if you want to release a relatively unchanging version that you keep working for years.
Personally, I don't give a rats ass about the stable releases, and would rather use a continuously updated (but tested) set of packages than an unchanging one. But I have actually met people who use stable on their servers and appreciate what it is.