GA4 documentation has been updated but Google forgot to update GA4

After my post yesterday, a dilemma arose: was the chicken 🐔 or the egg 🥚 born first?
Joking aside, the dilemma is similar: is it the GA4 documentation that has a bug or is it GA4 itself?

You can find my post here: [GA4 🕷] BUG in Organic Search Channel

🔎 I retrieved earlier versions of GA4’s channel rule documentation from webarchive and in 2024 the channel rule for Organic Search changed twice:

2021: only the medium defined the channel
2024 (at least until April): either the source OR the medium defined the channel (OR operator)
2024 (until today): both source AND medium are required to define the channel (AND operator).

🚨 Warning! The documentation says that both dimensions are needed to attribute the session to the Organic Search channel (AND operator), but in reality the OR rule still applies.

👉 This can be confusing when analysing traffic sources, since in some circumstances, especially with campaigns or the misuse of UTMs, inconsistent attributions can be generated in the default Channels.

Did you find similar inconsistencies in your reports when looking at traffic sources?
Feel free to express your thoughts in the comments! 👇