So, the question popped up

[Orac]

Wasn't there some issues around the volume or requitred testing it takes to merge the various branch versions into trunk?

My personal, very layman's view of the situation is that it can't take an unreasonable amount of time (relative to not testing at all) to take a feature, apply it to a few dozen different units each with another of the logics with which it could plausibly interact, and test it. If that model of testing has any merits then I can't see it taking more than a few weeks with a few testers to get things releasable.

IDK, though. The breakdown of communication has been pretty complete.