I occasionally revisit closed "later" issues. They are not 100% resolved/rejected.

When an open issue is in the "later" milestone, then that does not necessarily mean "after all the release milestones that currently exist. It might for some issues, but not all. It does however mean "not in the very next release" or at least "I won't do it in time for the very next release".

Or in other words "later" means what it means: "not now but later".