The idea that vendors should be responsible under the law for all of what they release is good. I concur that the long term likely outcome for the late adopter

The idea that vendors should be responsible under the law for all of what they release is good. I concur that the long term likely outcome for the late adopter crowd is "certified lts editions, supported by BlahCorp" and the long tail of decay. I don't envy anyone in that system. The early adopter crowd probably won't notice, they will steam ahead and keep their own patchset on upstream with regular contribute-back and CI. Sure, they are liable, but they will staff to certify their own systems.