That's an interesting perspective. I'm still attached to the "modular" boost idea where each library + it's dependencies stands (mostly) independent from the rest of boost.
I am too. Modular consumption of Boost will have to be the future of Boost as we continue to accept and grow the collection of libraries. In the past, distribution of software was more difficult than it is today so shipping the entire still-somewhat-small Boost bundle was tenable. But nowadays, we have vcpkg and CMake's dependency providers and even more Boost libraries than ever. To help us meet contemporary expectations, Boost must become modular to survive. Luckily the vcpkg devs have solved this for us already. As for the utility of a develop branch, I think of it more as a nightly branch where stable-but-not-master-stable code lives. To me, feature branches are useful with a develop branch. For what it's worth, part of me actually enjoys fixing bugs in other Boost libraries. As Boost developers, I feel a sense of fraternity and as such, one must always look out for their fellow Boost bros. - Christian