Debian Linux increases the gap between upstream and downstream. This become obvious, if an upstream developer tries to submit the latest version of his sourcecode. The debain maintainer prevent him for doing so, because only security fixes are applied to existing debian installations. In contrast, the Arch Linux distribution works very close with the upstream. After starting the package manager the upstream sourcecode gets compiled into the latest Arch Linux binary file.
The obvious question is, why should somebody increase the gap between the upstream and downstream? Because it can be filled with a community. This community argues for the Linux distribution and against the upstream. The result is a long running debate held on conferences in which the aim is not to solve conflicts but to increase the misunderstanding. The principle is known from Wikipedia in which all the editors are in a permanent conflict with the admins. The opposite social roles is the strength of Wikipedia and of Debian as well.
In the Arch LInux distribution such a community isn't available. Instead the pacman software is connecting the user with the upstream releases. Pacman doesn't understand English and he won't recognize that the latest kernel will introduce new security problems instead of solving the old ones. Only the Debian community is able to do so.