Not one bit surprising. I tried it early on and it was so buggy that I never used it again. In fact, I had completely forgotten about Google Wave until your post.
I think they Beta'd it (pretty sure that's not a word!) way too early. I get the "let the masses test it" approach but Wave took it too far. A user's first experience still matters! It better be good enough or they won't come back. Wave wasn't even close to good, much less good enough.