Historically, Java had a real habit of delaying new major versions for years as features hardened. Some of those features even lost relevance before their first

Historically, Java had a real habit of delaying new major versions for years as features hardened. Some of those features even lost relevance before their first shipping version. So now they have a precise release cadence that features can fall into. If it is a large feature, it better get worked in incrementally (via feature previews) because it is unlikely to be able to land completely within the release window. One could pessimistically say the faster release cadence partially serves to provide more opportunities for extended support revenue, though.