> In gitflow, “develop” is master. The master branch serves no real purpose.

Yes, it serves a real purpose.

Develop is technically deployable (in CI/CD/CD terms it is delivered but not deployed), Master is that plus socially deployable, and hence actually deployed.

Now, some organizations don't have social controls on deployment that have timelines that necessitate a separation between those things plus release branches to support getting the technically deployable to be socially deployable, but some do, and those are often outside the control of the development organization, potentially the IT organization, and sometimes even the whole organization as they may be external controls.