The problem at Google is their (lacking) process for Preview -> GA.
Maybe it's a consequence of their rigorousness around SRE, but it doesn't seem like there's a plausible and efficient path for that to happen.
Ergo, the only competitive options from Google are ever-Preview products.
Yup. Adopting a month-old Postgres release is quite aggressive. It's much more prudent to start considering adoption after it's had six to twelve months of battle testing.
Adopting a month-old AI model version for new development is the default industry expectation right now. Adopting a six month old model is a recipe for having to migrate to a new one almost immediately, when it hits EOL.
The process was, as we were informally told during orientation, that "Preview" means some SVP thinks this has a chance of going over the minimum threshold of 200M worldwide users and is willing to put his weight behind that product, and "GA" means the product has gone over that threshold and will be "supported" until it goes back below the threshold at which point competing SVPs will start sharpening their knives, preparing to stick them in the back of the SVP that is currently in charge of the product.