The team has boosted its development by focusing on 3 desktop editions (Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce) and by taking the decisions in 2014 to only use long-term support releases.
Sounds like they are taking the conservative approach, so should be more stable.
Will this affect derivative distros like Mint?
https://www.linuxmint.com/about.php
Sounds like they are taking the conservative approach, so should be more stable.