> This is the problem here. If you have multiple long-lived branches, there's no technical solution to preventing rot -- you must actively keep them in sync.

Well, merge actually works much smoother and rebase gives a lot more grief, so the problem is with rebase.

> Regularly merging in main is the opposite of the proper solution. Constantly rebasing on top of main is the proper solution.

The "proper" solution is the one that allows me to get stuff done. The only thing that matters is how the main branch ends up looking in the end, and what I do before that isn't really all that important.

Another problem with rebase is when multiple people are working on the branch; it requires careful coordination if you don't want to lose work. Overall, just merge in main is usually the best strategy here.