What I meant by that is that because the changes mostly aren't syntax changes, they won't upset most users who are just using big packages that are actively maintained and keeping ahead of the breakage.

But I still find the high level of instability in Python land rather disturbing, and I would be unhappy if the languages I used constantly did these sorts of breaking changes

I'm even more extreme in that I also think the ABI instability is bad. Even though Python gives no guarantee of its stability, it's used by so many people it seems like a bad thing to constantly break and it probably should be stabilized.

The go 1.0 compatibility promise is the sort of minimal guarantee that meets the cost and risk requirements for long term software maintenance.

The model here isn't something being actively maintained but some 100k utility that has been quietly working for five or ten years and has receded out of the awareness of everyone. Touching it is risky and it's working. I don't want to change it. SSL deprecations are bad enough but at least justifyable but removing things that have been deprecated is not.