Hrm, since the actual meat of this second `merge_release_$VERSION` PR is already reviewed (being part of the other PR already), does it still need to wait for further review?  After all, it's only going to be the updated CHANGELOG contents (which have already been reviewed for the merge to release), and the updated VERSION file from A.B.C-dev to X.Y.Z-dev.

See the current one for reference: #3445