[madeofpalk]

I think the idea is that the branches cascade. You would never create new commits directly into release or master, the flow would only ever be develop > release > master, thus making merge commits and conflicts impossible.

[Touche]

That doesn't work in practice, you are always going to need to "fast-track" a bug fix, skipping develop (which has code you don't want to deploy).

[rjv]

That's exactly what hotfixes are for. A completed hotfix will merge directly into develop and master simultaneously (practically speaking). This allows you to keep your unrelated develop commits out of the master until you're ready to merge it all.