The 'stable version but we backport patches' mantra Just because Redhat handles this poorly (like pretty much everything), does not make the model bad. For ex

The 'stable version but we backport patches' mantra Just because Redhat handles this poorly (like pretty much everything), does not make the model bad. For example, almost every single security update on Debian, is backported when not handled by upstream. And there is a lot of that. You lose so much stability, if you track all-new. In fact, you literally spend more time chasing underlying bugs, instead your bugs, and dealing with api changes, if your stack is bleeding edge.