I had to downgrade too - my phone stopped connecting after dialing out (so reminiscent of windows mobile !) and I was unable to hear the other person even though I was connected. I don't know if this was the beta acting up or a memory issue but nothing seemed to resolve it except a battery pull EVERYTIME I had to make a call
back to 4.2 and that issue is gone. I too am eager to get the snappier, better looking OS back....any idea when big red plans on releasing the 4.5os to us lesser beings?