Enterprise distros don't really do kernel version upgrades and this problem would be short-lived anyway since 3.1 would come out three months after 3.0.
(Y'all may be amused to hear that IBM never releases x.0 versions at all; they go straight to x.1.)
Not every project treats version numbers the same way.
It's irresponsible of anyone paid to know this kind of thing to not be aware of how a project handles version numbers.
Linus is the kind of guy that would go to 2.8 just "because it's time" in his mind rather than some big feature jump. Whether or not a person agrees, it would be good for people to at least inform themselves.