... and breaking backward compatibility still causes anger, as was shown with the changes in smart match by Zefram

Just as an aside - I haven't seen any activity from Zefram for quite some time, now. From memory, he was quite active on p5p (and even had a grant) leading up to the release of 5.30, but I've seen nothing from him since.
Is that the reason ? Has he, too, been made to feel that his inputs are no longer appreciated ?

Cheers,
Rob