Alpha 4 introduces a number of code-level improvements, spearheaded by lawowlan and acbramley.
Notably, we've split data storage for users and roles into services, which lets us be more consistent in the API. In the future, it will also mean that we can swap out the storage system.
The only user-facing change is that Workbench Access rules now apply on node creation. If the node type is under access control, a user must have access to at least one section in order to create content.
A complete list of changes: