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Because they describe the seller's activity, not the buyer's commitment. "Proposal sent" tells you somebody attached a PDF to an email. "Interested" tells you nothing at all.
Stages like these cannot carry a weight, because two deals in the same stage can be six weeks and six months from closing.
Write each stage as something the buyer has done that you could verify: they have given you a budget figure, they have introduced the person who signs, they have agreed a start date.
If you cannot describe the evidence that moves a deal into a stage, it is not a stage — it is a feeling. Five or six of these is usually plenty.
Five or six. More than eight and nobody remembers the definitions.
Use separate pipelines rather than more stages.
Hygiene rules flag them; they stay in stage until something actually changes.
Half an hour with your own data usually saves reading three of these. The guides will still be here afterwards.