To me it's really not about whether it's a good idea or not. What works for an 8-year-old project that has always done it that way, may not work for a 33-year-

To me it's really not about whether it's a good idea or not. What works for an 8-year-old project that has always done it that way, may not work for a 33-year-old project which has never done it that way. The latest perl will run a huge chunk of the perl 1.0 test suite unmodified. That's a long history of backwards compatibility. This sudden change in focus and project-management may really backfire on them.