This is your issue. Your rsync command calls the minor version specifically, which can be a bad thing.
Aha - OK. The thing is I want to maintain my 5.3 mirror - I guess it makes sense for me to stop calling rsync for it does it? Since there will be no more updates to it?
On my mirror I have 5.3 and 5.4, but my "5" symlink points to 5.3. I guess I should change everything over to include the minor number then?