This isn't quite accurate. Some of these features are in the 1.0.x releases too.
Also, I think there are bugfixes (and maybe security patches?) in 1.2.x that weren't in 1.0.x.
I'm just surprised that there isn't a coalesced list of changes for going from stable->stable release.
If I was in wide production, I'd want more guidance on what changed, and when I should be upgrading.