RCU, despite the name, is indeed a reclamation algorithm, but not a general one. I.e. you would use RCU (or some other deferred reclamation algorithm like hazar

RCU, despite the name, is indeed a reclamation algorithm, but not a general one. I.e. you would use RCU (or some other deferred reclamation algorithm like hazard pointers) for specific data structures when you do not have generalized garbage collection. A generalized RCU is just a tracing GC.