From my memory, it seems that the most recent goal of a 3.4 release was 
to finalize Squeak as a release which primarily occurred under the 
stewardship of Squeak Central.

Squeak 3.5x and forward were to be the releases under the Guide system. 
It can be somewhat confusing since it appears that a "Guide" is 
releasing 3.4. However, the purpose did not change.

While Squeak is not currently under any commercial or business type time 
pressure, there are people who do base certain events on releases. For 
example Stephane Ducasse sometimes releases materials (writings) which 
are based on a certain Squeak release. Some people burn cds for 
education and other distributions. So having a certain release which is 
frozen does advantage these people. Sometimes do to their release 
schedules some time pressure can be asserted.

I hope this makes sense.

Jimmie Houchin