This is a desirable trait in a server. You keep behind everything by a version or two and you are essentially guaranteed more stability. Considering how Ubuntu 11.10 has run on my desktop, I would not want to build my business off it.

Mot vendors offer a PPA for easy integration with apt on debian. MongoDB, Maria/MySQL/Percona etc. This way your core system stays solid and well tested, but you can build your app layer using whatever version you want. It's definitely a win-win.

I think this is because Ubuntu is based on Debian sid, which is the "unstable" Debian branch. You might have been using the stable release.