[kashug]

> You don't actually want these changes to end up in the main branch before they are done

I see no problem with that if it is a small change that can de deployed safely. (for instance hidden behind a feature-toggle where applicable).

We tend to strive for small, short lived branches. We usually don't want PRs with more than a couple of days work - to keep them small, easy to test. It also makes the amount of changes going to production at any time small.

The best would be if any specific feature is small enough to only be a few days work. But out experience is that it is not allways easy to do that - and sometimes some features will take weeks before they are done.