Confusing inconsistencies between stages of the REC track for documents and for amendments

Foreword:
This issue is an attempt at simplifying the Process of REC maintenance using amendments. This is orthogonal to, and doesn't address:

• the concerns about markup challenges at the core of https://github.com/w3c/process/issues/866 and https://github.com/w3c/process/issues/589
• the concerns about too much terminology expressed in https://github.com/w3c/process/issues/590

These will still need to be looked into separately. But I think the proposal I have here would still be a meaningful step forward in addressing the general confusion surrounding this part of the process, as expressed in https://github.com/w3c/process/issues/700 and in most discussions we have about this part of the Process.

During Process 2020, when the notion of Amendments was introduced, we tried to make working with Amendment more lightweight than the full REC track, and instead of having the equivalent of the 4 stages ((FP)WD->CR->PR->REC) for the amendments, we collapsed in into 3: Candidate Amendments->Proposed Amendments->REC

However, having a different number of stages also meant that the conditions to be fulfilled along the way couldn't be attached to the exact same stages. So we re-giggled them so that in order to reach REC, all the same requirements would be fulfilled, but in a somewhat different order, which we attempted to make simpler / more lightweight.

Even though we successfully did preserve all the requirements of a REC before amendments could be folded into the REC, the result ended up being confusing for several reasons:

• the entry/exit criteria and associated verification for a Candidate Amendment are not the same as those for a Candidate Recommendation.
• the entry/exit criteria and associated verification for a Proposed Amendment are not the same as those for a Proposed Recommendation.
• For the purposes of the Patent Policy, unlike a Candidate Recommendation, a Candidate Amendment is not a Patent Review Draft, but rather a Working Draft
• The AC review isn't the last stage before folding into the REC, so it cannot serve as a verification that everything else has been done correctly.

Since then, we have retired Proposed Recommendation from the REC track. So now, both the document Process and the current Amendment process have the same number of stages, but they're still not the same stages, and the criticism above still applies.

However, the progression that we now have for Documents is a lot simpler than the one for Amendments, and in line with the traditional way of doing things. I think we should align the Amendment process with it:

• Amendments should be introduced as Draft Amendments (not Candidate Amendments)
• the combination of the REC with the Draft Amendments included should count as a Working Draft for the purposes of the Patent Policy (just as Candidate Amendments currently do)
• Promoting a Draft Amendment to Candidate Amendment should require the same criteria as going to CR (wide review, issues addressed, verified by a transition request), and when successful, should trigger a patent exclusion opportunity (just like CRs do)
• the combination of the REC with the Candidate Amendments included should count as a Patent Review Draft for the purposes of the Patent Policy (like a CR does)
• Normatively folding a Candidate Amendment into a REC should require the same criteria as taking a CR to REC: Implementation experience and issues addressed, verified by a transition request, followed by an AC-Review

The graphic below describes, in its middle column, the REC track for documents. The left column is the current amendment Process, which is visibly very different. The right column is the alternative amendment process I am suggesting here. I hope this makes it clear that anyone familiar with the REC track progression will have a much more intuitive time with the proposal than with the current approach. (This graph omits some details, including the fact that you can iterate at some stages before moving forward; this would make the graph more busy without adding information relevant to the question at hand.)

graph TB;

t1[Current Amendment Process]@{shape: doc} ~~~ CA-l
CA-l(["**Candidate** Amendment"])--->|Group Decision| PA([**Proposed** Amendment]) -->|Automatic| excl-A-l[[Call for Exclusion]]
PA -->|Automatic| AC-rev-A-l
subgraph lc[Last Call for Review of Proposed Amendments]
  excl-A-l 
  AC-rev-A-l
end
excl-A-l --> merge-2
AC-rev-A-l[[AC-Review]] -->|W3C Decision| merge-2@{shape: f-circ}
merge-2-->|Group Decision| CA-check-l[[
Transition request:
wide review
issues formally addressed
implementation experience
]]-->|Team Verification| REC-A-l([Fold into **W3C Recommendation**])


t2[Document Process]@{shape: doc} ~~~ WD
WD([Working **Draft**])-->|Group Decision| WD-check[[
Transition request:
wide review
issues formally addressed
]]
WD-check-->|Team Verification| CR([**Candidate** Recommendation]) -->|Automatic| excl[[Call for Exclusion]]
excl  -->|Group Decision| CR-check[[
Transition request:
implementation experience
issues formally addressed
]]-->|Team Verification| AC-rev[[AC-Review]]-->|W3C Decision| REC([**W3C Recommendation**])

t3[Suggested Amendment Process]@{shape: doc} ~~~ DA
DA(["**Draft** Amendment"])-->|Group Decision| DA-check[[
Transition request:
wide review
issues formally addressed
]]
DA-check-->|Team Verification| CA([**Candidate** Amendment]) -->|Automatic| excl-A[[Call for Exclusion]]
excl-A -->|Group Decision| CA-check[[
Transition request:
implementation experience
issues formally addressed
]]-->|Team Verification| AC-rev-A[[AC-Review]]-->|W3C Decision| REC-A([Fold into **W3C Recommendation**])

CR:::PP-PRD
CA:::PP-PRD
CA-l:::PP-WD
PA:::PP-PRD
REC:::PP-PRD
REC-A:::PP-PRD
REC-A:::PP-REC
REC-A-l:::PP-REC
REC-A-l:::PP-PRD
REC:::PP-REC
WD:::PP-WD
DA:::PP-WD
classDef PP-WD fill:#7cf,stroke:#050
classDef PP-PRD fill:#7fc,stroke:#050
classDef PP-REC stroke-width:4px;

REC ~~~ Legend
subgraph Legend [Patent Policy States]
    direction TB
    PWD([Working Draft]):::PP-WD
    PRD([Patent Review Draft]):::PP-PRD
end

graph TB;

t1[Current Amendment Process]@{shape: doc} ~~~ CA-l
CA-l(["**Candidate** Amendment"])--->|Group Decision| PA([**Proposed** Amendment]) -->|Automatic| excl-A-l[[Call for Exclusion]]
PA -->|Automatic| AC-rev-A-l
subgraph lc[Last Call for Review of Proposed Amendments]
  excl-A-l
  AC-rev-A-l
end
excl-A-l --> merge-2
AC-rev-A-l[[AC-Review]] -->|W3C Decision| merge-2@{shape: f-circ}
merge-2-->|Group Decision| CA-check-l[[
Transition request:
wide review
issues formally addressed
implementation experience
]]--->|Team Verification| REC-A-l([Fold into **W3C Recommendation**])
merge-2 .->|Revise| PA & CA-l

t2[Document Process]@{shape: doc} ~~~ WD
WD([Working **Draft**])-->|Group Decision| WD-check[[
Transition request:
wide review
issues formally addressed
]]
WD-check-->|Team Verification| CR([**Candidate** Recommendation]) -->|Automatic| excl[[Call for Exclusion]]
excl -->merge-3@{shape: f-circ} -->|Group Decision| CR-check[[
Transition request:
implementation experience
issues formally addressed
]]-->|Team Verification| AC-rev[[AC-Review]]-->|W3C Decision| REC([**W3C Recommendation**])
merge-3 .->|Revise| WD-check & WD

t3[Suggested Amendment Process]@{shape: doc} ~~~ DA
DA(["**Draft** Amendment"])-->|Group Decision| DA-check[[
Transition request:
wide review
issues formally addressed
]]
DA-check-->|Team Verification| CA([**Candidate** Amendment]) -->|Automatic| excl-A[[Call for Exclusion]]
excl-A -->merge-4@{shape: f-circ} -->|Group Decision| CA-check[[
Transition request:
implementation experience
issues formally addressed
]]-->|Team Verification| AC-rev-A[[AC-Review]]-->|W3C Decision| REC-A([Fold into **W3C Recommendation**])
merge-4 .->|Revise| DA-check & DA

CR:::PP-PRD
CA:::PP-PRD
CA-l:::PP-WD
PA:::PP-PRD
REC:::PP-PRD
REC-A:::PP-PRD
REC-A:::PP-REC
REC-A-l:::PP-REC
REC-A-l:::PP-PRD
REC:::PP-REC
WD:::PP-WD
DA:::PP-WD
classDef PP-WD fill:#7cf,stroke:#050
classDef PP-PRD fill:#7fc,stroke:#050
classDef PP-REC stroke-width:4px;

REC ~~~ Legend
subgraph Legend [Patent Policy States]
    direction TB
    PWD([Working Draft]):::PP-WD
    PRD([Patent Review Draft]):::PP-PRD
end