@Junkie actually, they announced the Foundation Freeze before Beta ever started, it just got delayed a bit. The post your talking about was the reminder after the fact.
As it is, foundation rewards don't become really active until launch anyway. The only real exception being some forum titles, and the chance to pre-purchase some decor that you can't use until release anyway.
They announced the foundation freeze because they were going to be working on integrating it with the new systems that were introduced with Beta (Gamigo/Glyph) and reinstating them lsn't the plain and simple solution it is thought to be. Shoot, there were some errors coming through on the system before the Freeze was mentioned, and these probably prompted the overhaul.
Suffice it to say, you still get your foundation levels and such, you just don't get new foundation points at the moment, BUT they were partly a reward system for being active on the site, and now you have the 24/7 Beta to be active in, which is its own motivation.