Confluence 8.8 release EAP available now

I’m confused, too, by the fact that there is another thread Confluence 8.8 beta is available now started by Atlassian @WendyR, and I wonder what is the purpose of that?

As written there, the 8.8 beta release notes state that user directory passwords will be encrypted, and since we need the password to access LDAPs that require authentication, I wonder where to obtain information about how to handle this?