[rlpb]

Distributions patch to get consistent and integrated behaviour across the platform, including new features that require implementation into multiple places to be even minimally useful, and ports to newer APIs to make everything work against a single version of each library so that they do not conflict.

Upstreams generally don't do this until prompted, and sometimes resist until the path is proven and becomes best practice because distributions pushed it.

This process is mostly invisible to you because distributions have been successful at getting the changes needed for sane and consistent behaviour embedded into tools and expectations by default. All you see are the patches that are in flight or didn't make it.

If you want a distribution that does only minimal patching then there are distributions for that. The fact that the major distributions do patch speaks volumes about which approach results in a better experience for users.