> Which incentivises the developer to make sure that either the software never really "just works" If they are deliberately limiting their current product, tha

> Which incentivises the developer to make sure that either the software never really "just works" If they are deliberately limiting their current product, that just makes it easier for a competitor to come in and steal their business. Every upgrade season people are going to be asking themselves "do I stick with this janky product or do I look to see if there's something better out there?" Similarly if a company overhypes an update, it will make customers more skeptical of updates in the future. Generally it's pretty easy to wait a few months after a new release is out to see if it's positively received. There are more nefarious antipatterns, like putting in bugs that don't crop up until around when the next upgrade becomes available, or breaking compatibility between versions so once a critical mass switches voluntarily, everyone else is pretty much forced. But really there's no system immune to abuse by sufficiently motivated bad actors.