In this article as far as I understand it, a plugin minor version has to be less than or equal to the Rack minor version. But this article says that you can chose any minor version for your plugin and that it will work with any Rack 1.X version.
I think the first article makes more sense. Otherwise there would be no way for VCV Rack to test if a plugin can be loaded, if it uses new functions and if it is an older VCV Rack version. This would result in runtime error messages difficult to understand for the user, or maybe crashes.
Currently only Forzen Wasteland has a 1.2.x plugin, and looks like there is no plugin > 1.2.x, all other plugins have version <= 1.1.x. So still possible to change the rule, at least with the next VCV Rack 1.3 release.
Of course, this only applies, if @Vortico plans to add public functions in later VCV Rack 1.x versions. If not, then the first article should be corrected to say the same as the second article.
The inconsistency you’re reading is that the first article is talking about the Rack version, and the second article is talking about your plugin’s version. Your plugin’s minor version can be anything: 1.2345.6789. Very rarely, some plugins might require Rack >=1.1.* for example due to a fix (typically requested by the plugin developer). If you want to version your plugin 1.alpha5.b, go for it.
The first article talks about both, the Rack version and plugin version. It says e.g. “Users will need to upgrade their Rack minor version to load your plugin.” and later “This is similar to how VST plugins work, where for example, VST 2.3 plugins cannot load in DAWs that only implement the VST 2.2 standard.”. This is not consistent with the documentation in the second article. But might be hairsplitting and the users will have no problem anyway, if they are using the latest Rack version all the time. But might be a good idea then to change the first article.
It’s literally impossible to answer someone’s question these days and receiving a simple “Thanks for the answer!” rather than “It’s your fault, fix the documentation.” Why do I even try
So you deleted the “versioning” chapter in the second link. Does this mean that now the first article is right and the minor version of the plugins should be less or equal the Rack minor version to work?