Having an RC doesn't mean you abandon development on it. What exactly is the difference between calling it 'RC' and 'stable branch'? Both get released to users

Having an RC doesn't mean you abandon development on it. What exactly is the difference between calling it 'RC' and 'stable branch'? Both get released to users, both get changes backported. Except with RC, you're honest. It's a candidate for a full release. If you call it "stable", you're misrepresenting facts. You're not stable. You wouldn't even know, since you had no widespread testing on it.