[jbmsf]

I think you make some assumptions that are context-specific.

The decision to always be backwards compatible is just that, a decision. It comes with some really nice benefits around CI/CD, but also adds overhead for certain kinds of development, especially if data models are evolving rapidly. I've been in situations where we made the explicit decision not be backwards compatible due to business context that prioritized these evolutions.

Likewise, deploying to production continuously is not always an option. I've been in situations where customer relationships (contractual or otherwise) require that changes not be made continuously. Accidental outages or regressions are simply not an acceptable risk in some business contexts.

[Aeolun]

On the other hand, without continuous deployment, my experience is that a deployment to live always goes wrong, meaning you have to budget an entire night for one deployment, and hope you’ll fix all the issues before next morning.

[jbmsf]

As always, it depends.

I've seen staged releases work quite well at multiple companies and fail miserably at some others.

That said, continuous deployment is the right choice in many/most contexts. I'd just prefer that people see it as a choice instead of assuming that it's the only way that can work.