As if this isn't an issue with fast-moving "let's bundle everything" upstream code drops either?
Distribution releases have the advantage that they have a large number of followers who share the same set of versions, and so can shake out the issues and fix the bugs together. In practice I think this beats what most upstreams that each pick their own sets of versions can achieve on their own.
It only takes one skilled engineer to fix any given issue in a given distribution release, even at today's scale. That's not a big burden, and is even available to those not skilled with a relatively inexpensive support contract.
Corporate upstreams additionally tend to focus on what matters to paying customers; other use cases can often receive a "not supported" answer. A community of followers operating on the same set of versions can address these use cases more easily, too.
Distribution releases have the advantage that they have a large number of followers who share the same set of versions, and so can shake out the issues and fix the bugs together. In practice I think this beats what most upstreams that each pick their own sets of versions can achieve on their own.
It only takes one skilled engineer to fix any given issue in a given distribution release, even at today's scale. That's not a big burden, and is even available to those not skilled with a relatively inexpensive support contract.
Corporate upstreams additionally tend to focus on what matters to paying customers; other use cases can often receive a "not supported" answer. A community of followers operating on the same set of versions can address these use cases more easily, too.