Just out of curiosity: are you developing on Windows or Linux?
Linux
ABI compatibility is indeed a high bar, It is more like a fence, or wall, blocking improvement imho.
Sure sometimes libraries are built with a earlier version that one would like. It sucks to be on that earlier version when its known that there is some dope feature in a newer version. But, then sure, be stuck on that earlier version. Then you get all the functionality from that version, but on the other hand, at some point in the future, dependencies could update and you get improvements. With ABI stability you could upgrade right away (if the issue is specifically dynamic linkage to targets with non hidden symbols), but pay the cost of not having the same improvements. Jakob