@Shane Gowland -
Implying 4.0 should be an extra long dev cylce:
Bigger stuff can require starting sooner. Talking about the future does not imply dev cycle it self is longer. That would mean that the age of each trac ticket (or feature as a plugin) determines the actual length of the dev cycle.

Failure to understand the implications of non-semantic versioning on dev cycle:
Nope. Non semantic does not mean one cant put cool stuff in some arbitrary version number. In this case 4.0.

Dismissing plugins-as-features:
Nope. I dismissed the claim that it was innovative. Its good that its finally used. Havent gone far enough though. But its not really features as plugins either though more like development using plugins. As I understand it they arent plugins when integreated into core. And thereby they are not features as plugins. The WP importer is a feature as plugin though.