I feel that with Windows 11 and after its release, Microsoft has been slowly returning to their old way of developing Windows releases. That is, new major OS releases were always developed under almost complete secrecy, and the only way we would end up knowing about their existence was through build leaks. It was always like this until September 30, 2014, when the Insider Program was launched. Come 2021... and... Instead of testing W11 from very early in the development phase, we got the entire OS basically complete and ready for launch in June 28. There was almost nothing to test, the OS was basically done, with just a few finishing touches to be done. Most of Windows 11's development phase took place under wraps -- just like in the days before the Insider Program existed. Internal builds with hashes on the desktop to prevent leaks, huge warnings on the desktop telling developers not to take screenshots... They no longer ask us to vote on what version or design of a feature we want in a future Windows update (like they did with the notification center icon's position and with the Settings app layout in 1607 for example.). In other words, I feel like with each year, Microsoft needs Insiders less and less, and by extension, cares less and less about their opinion. We are no longer Windows Insiders, but rather, just regular Beta Testers, like in the old days. In fact, now, the Release/Stable channel sometimes gets new features or changes BEFORE "Insiders" in any of the testing channels. The program is now in its worst phase ever, with A/B testing and now this "Controlled Feature Rollout" being in my opinion the dumbest changes ever made to it. BOTTOM LINE: It seems like the Insider Program is becoming gradatively less relevant/important for Microsoft. And its slowly being killed off. With all this, I predict that, after Windows 12 releases next year and Windows 10 goes EOL in the fall of 2025, Microsoft is going to discontinue the program completely. Heck, we might even go back to the scheme of Beta > RC > RTM. If my prediction eventually turns out to be true... It will have been great while it lasted, and as a true Windows enthusiast and geek, I'll miss this era dearly. To be clear: I already do miss the early program, when it was lead by Gabriel Aul. Update - 10/17/2023 - According to FireCubeStudios on X/Twitter, the MVP Program for the Windows Insider Program has been closed completely today, this feels very suspicious. Big changes might be indeed coming.
The confusing part is all the branches, the constant stream of builds etc. have you looked at the wiki pages and various sites that list all the builds, codenames, releases? sure in the insider thing you just choose between dev and release preview, simple on that end but deeper down it's a mess. they have turned windows into a never ending beta. they should go back to the old system. some will disagree but that's just my opinion.
The insider program has done some good, remember recently in builds where the desktop icons would stay blank and everyone had to manually hit F5 to refresh to get those icons to display again. At least MS took notice of feedback from insiders and finally fixed that annoying bug. Though I do miss the good old days of occasional getting unofficial leaks of Windows 7 builds when it was in development, and when Service Pack 1 was in development too. But that's what led us to the creation of the Windows insider program, too stop leaks cause everyone got new builds usually every week. Not many build leaks happening nowadays which to be honest is a good thing, as no one knows if the build has some nasty virus\malware integrated into the OS image. So it was a risky business installing them, I always installed them in a VM cause I never trusted them enough to install on my systems.