I think this is key, so a test should be declared “the one” when the test proves a success. So when we have things disabled, security switched off we can say, this definitely is not going to release. Then release candidates start and we should have all features and security enabled, but try and hack it. When we all think it is secured and stable the test keeps running and that is it.
The whole community should know at the same time. Otherwise we always restart and drop, then finally start the real network, the only issue is that it starts small, so we do it secretly and grow it to a secure level of membership (we would farm then to by default) and then at a certain size declare it OK. That’s unfair IMHO.
I think the route we are on is possibly the most correct one and certainly the most open.