I've been using webpack since v1 and I can't recall having to open pull requests when periodically upgrading it, or its plugins. Webpack 5 + html-webpack-plugin are kind of a mess right now, though. Webpack, in many use cases, needs html-webpack-plugin but there is only an alpha release supporting v5.

The release was rushed by community pressure, and now we have a half-baked upgrade strategy. I would've happily waited another 6-12 months before v5 was released to get major plugins ready first.