As part of the cache improvements investigations, we would like to have the complete test coverage.
There are features that are experimental in nature. These features, if enabled by default in develop, will increase the load on the team for triaging.
if disabled, features will not get enough test coverage.

By having a project branch, all the wiredtiger testing can be run on this branch.
The feature will be enabled by default in the branch and all existing tests can be run.
The feature will be merged to develop with default as disabled.

The project branch will help in having better test coverage and will not load the other members not involved in the cache related investigations.