Hi Jim,
Yes, at the moment the amount is not stored on either the receiving addresses (nor on the send addresses).
It is difficult to generalise how the addresses are used - one person might have an address for an item, another might use it for dealings with a particular person or another might use each address only once and not want ANY extra information stored with it.
To store a given amount with the label + address is equivalent to saying "the address describes a thing with a certain price" i.e it makes the list of receiving addresses into a "catalog of items for sale".
I get the feeling half the users would want it, half the users would not want it, and the other half would be undecided ! :-)
I can understand the differences in usage and that users will have varying preferences even when talking about a single user.
However: If MultiBit would save the amount then users will still be able to choose how to use the amount field.
If somebody does not like to see past amounts for a specific address then he can leave the field empty from the beginning (at least for receiving addresses) or delete the amount later.