Maybe in the past, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.

Torvalds pointed out that the numbers he applies to new kernel releases are essentially meaningless.

“We haven’t done releases based on features (or on “stable vs unstable”) for a long, long time now. So that new major number does not mean that we have some big new exciting feature, or that we’re somehow leaving old interfaces behind. It’s the usual “solid progress” marker, nothing more.”