The stable version seems to include the changes and fixes from the previous series of beta versions. The current version number sequence is 13.23 > 13.23.1beta > 13.23.2beta > ...... > 13.24. Personally, I feel that a version number sequence like this better expresses version evolution: 13.23 > 13.24beta1 > 13.24beta2 > 13.24beta3 > ...... > 13.24. However, people may already be used to the current version numbering, and changes would also make many users uncomfortable.
We did that originally and found it was confusing. It means the version numbers don’t always increase and betas have a higher version than the stable versions which come after them.