First off, SM (whatever) 6970 with the anti-spam fixes is running very good, at least for my use in a small number of users. For those using SM 16, SM (whatever it is) is just a follow on to that product. I suggest go ahead and "upgrade" to the next build after 6970. 

But what is "6970", is it SM 17, is it just SM, which I think ST wants it to be, yet when you see 16.x.6970 and 15.x.6970 and then just 6970 it's another software product with an identity crisis. It is what it is, but it's just weird, confusing, and well, whatever.