I also think some of the comments in this thread about audio people never upgrading are a little dated. Maybe 10 years ago it was more common for someone to sit on an ancient version of Protools if they were a full time studio, but most of the market is hobbyists and semi professionals who have a single personal MacBook or PC that they use for everything, not just recording. Airgapping something like that isn’t really an option.
Audio people “never” upgrading is a bit extreme. But it is still extremely common to delay updates until you know that your gear works with the new OS. We’re not necessarily talking about some ancient version of Pro Tools here, but maybe a couple plugins you use that are getting long in the tooth. Maybe you would like to upgrade them, but you’d need to pay.
Core audio is the API. You still need a driver for the audio interface. If it’s USB class compliant, then you get a driver for free. Not all devices are class compliant (for good reasons). You would be limited to the feature set provided by the USB audio class spec.