Not that you’ll agree, but cleaning the house sounds more like running rm -rf /tmp and docker system prune than upgrading from idk, bullseye to bookworm. Let’s call that a bathroom remodel? So sometimes you live in a historic house and the bathroom cannot be remodeled or changed because it’ll fall through the floor or King Louis the XV used it once. In software, the historic house could be the PLLc firmware controlling the valves in your nuclear reactor cooling loop.
And then the new car no longer has the camera where you need it, the panel buttons changed, the cup-holder is in another place. Even worse, the upgraded firmware & OS of the car no longer comes with an app you needed; or it does, but removed a feature that was essential for your daily use. All because some SWE takes "computer security" as more important than having an useful system.
It's the kind of rhetoric that enables shoving down user-hostile features during a simple update. And breaking many use cases. Quite common in the FOSS/Linux mentality, not so much on the rest of the world.
OTOH I never lived 5 years in the same place and I think it is not that bad of an idea when I look at the sheer amount of unused or barely used shit people hoard over the years in their house.
Then one day people's health or econoly dwindle, they need to move to a place without stairs or to a city center clother to amenities such as groceries, pharmacy and healthcare without relying on a car they cannot drive safely anymore, and moveming becomes a huge task. Or they die and their survivors have to take on the burden of emptying/donating/selling all that shit accumulated over the years.
Every move I assessed what I really needed and what I didn't and I think my life is better thanks to that.
I understand this is a YMMV thing. I am not saying everyone should move every couple of years. But to many people that isn't that big of a deal and it can be also considered in a very positive way.
Backward incompatible change means there is cost associated. It is like changing your furniture every 6 months. New furniture is fun, but unless your needs have changed (like marriage, children), it won't add you any benefit other than a new look...
Why not cleaning the room only once every 2-3 years ?