[kasabali]

I also wonder the reason for that.

As a speculation from an outsider, I'll list these reasons: Release team was very motivated in this cycle (auto removal of packages, not letting any new package in freeze, very strict exceptions even for packages that fix bugs etc.), most of current rc bugs are lurking there for months without any progress (and since Debian is all volunteer work, they can't force anybody to fix 'em), and they couldn't also remove those packages because they've already removed packages they could remove. Another thing is some of those RC bugs are security issues, which are handled by Security Team for stable and oldstable, so there is no reason for security issues to delay the release. When all these are considered, they may have not deemed further delaying the release worthwhile.

I would also like to hear the real reasons from a team member, though.

[walterbell]

Has there been a significant loss of Debian senior development resources to the https://devuan.org fork, as a result of the systemd debates?

[federico3]

Not at all, devuan is not considered trustworthy by the majority (to put it mildly).

[kasabali]

I don't follow Devuan development so I'm not sure but AFAIK no senior developer went to Devuan.

There has been loss of senior development resources because of the systemd and related discussions, though (some quit, some lost motivation etc.)

[tzakrajs]

Russ Allbery left https://lwn.net/Articles/620879/

edit: I don't know if he is going Devuan, but is related.

[forgottenpass]

He just left the tech committee, the last paragraph sounds like he'll still be working on debian.

[the_why_of_y]

It was very sad to see Russ Allbery leave the Debian Technical Committee; his deeply insightful and remarkably well written discussions will be missed.