To paraphrase someone else's reaction, I'm violently shaking my head in disagreement. What you're saying only works when you have 100% full control of everything (including the customer data). As someone who spent years in the enterprise space, what you're describing is akin to 'Ivory Tower Architecture'.

LTS is a commitment. That is all. If someone is uncomfortable with such a commitment, then that's fine, let me free market sort it out. But what LTS does is it tells everyone (including paying customers) that the formats/schemas/APIs/etc.. in that version will be supported for a very long time and if I adopt it, I won't have to think about it or budget too much for its maintenance for a period of time measured in months/years.

I would go the extra mile here and say that offline format should be supported FOREVER. None of that LTS bs for offline data, ever. LTS means that you're accountable for some of the costs in your partnership with the customers. If you move fast and break things, they will have to work extra just to keep up. If you move fast but mindful with back-compat, you will work extra but your customer will be happier. That is all.

Re-reading your comment gives me chills and reinforces my belief that I will never pay money to Google (they have a similar gung-ho attitude against 'legacy garbage') or have any parts of my business depend on stuff which reserves the liberty of breaking shit early and often.