There's no difference between our two ideas except that I have put both "versions" together in one string (please correct me if I'm wrong here). The reason I'v

There's no difference between our two ideas except that I have put both "versions" together in one string (please correct me if I'm wrong here). The reason I've done this is because the second you make one version the "real" version that developers will see in their config files, that number will once again take on "emotional" value and lead to resistance to updating it. There is theoretically nothing stopping node developers from using the system you describe today -- except that the "API" version is the one that people see in their files, and so naturally becomes the "spoken" version. If the "public version" isn't represented anywhere meaningful, then it requires a tremendous amount of 1) work on the developer's part to communicate its existence, and 2) restraint to maintain the spirit of the semver that users will actually repeatedly see. This is certainly something that a big corporation like Google is capable of, but small package developers in the ecosystem have shown that they are unwilling to do. The simple hack is to just append the "public version" to the front of the "API" version, and now everyone is happy.