What is the difference between 17.0 and 17.1?

I thought the difference between 17.0 and 17.1 was simply support for M1 Macs. But in the release notes for 17.1B10, it mentions intel machines.

At this moment, should I be using 17.0 Release or 17.1 Beta10? Is there any advantage or neat new stuff in 17.1B10 on an intel Mac?

Lastly, will these two eventually merge into a single release for the Mac or will they always be separate for intel and M1 (2/3/4/5)?

BTW... FWIW I couldn't possibly be happier with not only v17 but the entire beta process. Speaking from a Mac user, I have been using for on-line client work since the very first beta with maybe enough minor-medium issues that I could only count on one hand. For me, the new features and what it brought to the productions I do for my client far outweighed any risk in using a beta.

Now, if we could only get ProRes RAW for all us Sony aX series shooters, the world would truly be filled with peace and harmony

Veyr simple: 17.0 is the current stable release version, 17.1 is a new beta program for all platforms.

My experience on Macs was like yours, even if I'm more cautious than you and did many things in parallel. But 17 has been quite stable for me from the start, crashes only happened when using integrated Fusion.