I agree. But maybe this is what's needed to get the companies that depend on such long term support to actually contribute their on-going patches publicly rathe

I agree. But maybe this is what's needed to get the companies that depend on such long term support to actually contribute their on-going patches publicly rather than only internally? Ostensibly any patches found in an LTS kernel, must first be proven in a mainline release. But it'll be interesting to see just exactly how old and crusty these kernels end up becoming.