According to your linked article: > The OpenSSL 3.0 release schedule is documented on the OpenSSL 3.0 Release Schedule wiki page. We expect the final release t

According to your linked article: > The OpenSSL 3.0 release schedule is documented on the OpenSSL 3.0 Release Schedule wiki page. We expect the final release to be in early Q4 2020. Node 16 Release date: > 2021-04-20 They gave themselves 3-6 months buffer from 3.0 release to Node 16 release, and decided to move forward when OpenSSL was 4-6 months behind schedule, with no idea when 3.0 would release OpenSSL was then released in SEPTEMBER of 2021, nearly a year late, and 4 months after Node 16's LTS start date.... As of April, the Node team could not know if OpenSSL was going to be released tomorrow, next month, or next year I think they made the right choice to keep moving forward instead of halting work waiting on OpenSSL to get back on schedule... by April 2021, when SSL 3.0 was already ~5-6 months behind, I would have expected them to extend support for 1.1.1 for another few months... they didn't but that's mostly a moot point -- OpenSSL has committed to security fixes through the Node 16 end-of-life.. but the Node team isn't comfortable with that, so they made a change