Proposal:

• After the completion of maven-release-plugin, run
  • the reincrementalify goal
  • commit POM changes as new commit
  • Do another push to SCM

Everything can be implemented as a single Maven Mojo (e.g. "incrementals-release")

There is a risk of some edge cases, but it would help plugin developers a lot to keep their master branches release-ready at any time. It's also important for all CD-alike flows which may break if they do not reincrementalify.