That's the big misunderstanding here, isn't it? That software must be 'done', 'finished', 'feature complete', etc, in order to have major version number greater

That's the big misunderstanding here, isn't it? That software must be 'done', 'finished', 'feature complete', etc, in order to have major version number greater than 0. I would (I hope), release version 1.0 soon after I notice people actually using the software, document the existing API, keep releasing new features as minor version updates (1.x), and occasionaly do a major version bump if I see that I must break the existing APIs. As semver prescribes.