Again, this may be a really dumb question, but it says "Open Alpha" on the main page status, but in the FAQ goes on to say only developers can play. Which is accurate? Is anyone allowed to make a play account and hunt bugs, or just certain people?

Anyone can login, play and even create their own servers. What page says the incorrect info?

On the main page, if the click the "FAQ" header, one of the questions is "Can I play it now?" Followed by the answer "At the moment, it is under development and only beta testers and dev members are able to play."

We may be a little pre-mature for grande-scale "bug hunting" right now, though some features are developed enough to get general feedback on. You should hook up a client, log into one of the persistent test servers and try some stuff out. The release notes will usually tell you what is "officially" working - while some servers run "current development" code for testing new features.