[_kb]

I completely acknowledge it's utopian but isn't it a better goal to target continuous stability, or at least semi trusted process for when things inevitably break?

It's a similar concept to not deploying on Fridays. If you're afraid to introduce changes due to some arbitrary timing, perhaps it's worth focusing on the source of that uncertainty.

[wavesbelow]

It's not either/or. The observation that freezes and no Friday deployments capitalize on is that the single most likely cause of production incidents is production changes.

We always should target better stability, but no matter how good your system and incident response are, if your goal is to minimize customer disruption during a certain time window, or avoid dealing with incidents on weekends, minimizing production changes is the simplest and most effective measure

[_kb]

I agree. The flipside though is a freeze also invokes a scenario that can lead to a premature release. Any blanking window forces a decision between deferring or rushing work, neither of which are ideal.