So there is a GnomeShell bug reported and confirmed in 3.36 and 3.38 (desktop background is broken: lock screen and workspace thumbs not refresh, screen garbage with some slideshow/dynamic background):
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/3146
moved to Mutter after identifying the cause of the error:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1597
Why the issue was closed, if reported GnomeShell versions 3.36 and 3.38 are not fixed (only upcoming version 40)?
The bug is fixed, and GNOME 40 is the latest stable branch.
If you want a backport to stable branches, you’ll have to either ask the maintainers for it (either in the same issue or through a separate issue), or create merge requests for the backports yourself.
Just note that 3.36 is the old-old-stable, and won’t get any new release, so backports there are of limited use.
When bug was fixed (in January 2021), the latest stable branch was 3.38, and oldstable branch was 3.36. I thought bug fixes should go to the stable version (and maybe backported to oldstable), but the issue was closed too soon.
So it’s just optional behavior, not a rule.
Thanks for the clarification.
No, issues track whether a defect exists in the current development branch of the software, so it was not closed too soon.
It is common for interested users to ask for backports after that, which is helpful to identify commits that are (maybe) worth backporting.
You may have noticed that GNOME 40 was a rather big release with lots of changes, so in January everybody was frankly very busy working on that instead of working on stable releases. 
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