If you're solution to the issue is, that upstream may only depend on 10 year old API/ABIs, then I'll gladly misbehave. Why should I hold back my software for old, but still supported distributions like RHEL 6?
There's a lot between "depending on 10 year old APIs" and the "we release every 7 days, you can only assume last week's version is supported" that is all the rage these days.
Once people pay me enough to maintain old versions, I'll gladly spend some time on it. Until then I'd rather look forward and use my limited time on things I care about and if a new API allows me to do that quicker, easier or more reliably, then I'm all in.