The combination of the following seems like a key problem: 1. Refusal to break ABI compatibility (so no changes to existing APIs if they cause breakage) 2. Re

The combination of the following seems like a key problem: 1. Refusal to break ABI compatibility (so no changes to existing APIs if they cause breakage) 2. Refusal to introduce replacement APIs which can exist alongside the old ones (so you also can't have, to use the article's example, "regex2") In isolation, either of these policies is fine, but having both together seems like a refusal to improve.