A strong commitment to backwards compatibility means keeping your mistakes

Plenty of people like backwards compatibility, especially strong backwards compatibility. It has what is a sometimes unpleasant consequence, which is that a strong commitment to backwards compatibility requires keeping your mistakes. You don't have to have a strong commitment to backwards compatibility, of course, and many people think it's better not to. Microsoft Windows is a big example of such a strong commitment, and while it's given Microsoft a lot of commercial success it's also left them with a lot of technical challenges that have required heroic work to deal with. Backwards compatibility in general is definitely something that helps some groups at the potential expense of others, and it has a cost regardless of whatever benefits it gives to people. If you're going to make a strong commitment to backwards compatibility, it comes with the warts, including that your mistakes have to be preserved. If you don't want to have to preserve your mistakes, you should be honest about the limits of your commitment.