Depending on how far back you have to support (e.g., WordPress is still supporting 5.2), omission of the middle part wasn't supported until PHP 5.3.
Re:Upcoming changes in PHP 7.1
by TazeTSchnitzel on Monday May 23, 2016 @04:02PM
(#11756466)
5.3 came out seven years ago and isn't even officially supported by the PHP project now, let alone 5.2.
I know all too well, and you'd never catch me running that on any of my own systems. With a large enough install base, it's not uncommon to have a decent number of people on those older versions though.
edit: Just to clarify for anyone else unfamiliar with it: