[tpoacher]

> And application developers have to essentially wait for each distro to repackage their app before it becomes available on that distro.

Nonsense. Developers can do their thing, and distro maintainers can do theirs. The two have very different priorities and goals.

I'm perfectly happy downloading the latest version of hip package X directly from the developer's website while relying on distro packages for all the boring, stable stuff.

The whole "it's either all hip or all boring" is a false dichotomy.