Just some thoughts (without responding directly to particular points.)

My impression is that the original underlying issue stems from differences in opinion as to what the 'Experimental' state should represent - for some, it's simply the entry point to the XSF process, i.e. I'm working on this and invite community input; for others, it's more a threshold for experimental implementations, i.e. this is pretty much ready, though there may be some rough edges. Ultimately, Experimental has historically covered both of these cases, as it's simply the progression from initial submission to becoming Stable (previously Draft,) but maybe there is some benefit in having a clear separation between the two; though, as always, there may be some disagreement on where precisely to draw the boundary.

Some suggestions in this thread are for repurposing the names of 'Draft' and 'Proposed' - I would avoid this as it's more likely to create confusion, given their historical meanings (and uses elsewhere.)

The 'Proposed' state is not really being used in practice and is more of a paper-shuffling exercise than anything.

Given the above points, my thoughts lead to:

1. Separate Experimental into 'WIP' (work in progress) and 'Adopted;' I think many of the suggestions ultimately amount to this, with minor differences on where to put the boundary, whether to assign numbers, IPR agreement, etc. (My suggestions: IPR agreement for WIP; number at Adoption.)

2. Remove Proposed, as it only acts as a temporary "in Last Call" flag, which is already otherwise signalled.

3. Inbox remains as-is; the number of overall states remains the same.