The teams working on the JDK think about their work in 6-month release cycles, not LTS cycles. What's ready to go in when the train leaves the station, goes in, what's not, waits another 6 months. And this applies across the board for incremental changes coming from Amber, Loom, Valhalla, Panama, etc.

The danger of thinking in LTS cycles is a feeling that a feature needs to be rushed to make it in, which might jeopardize the production-ready quality on Day 1 of GA. It's very important to us that the ecosystem can trust every release, in production, right out of the gate.