I don't know much about OpenGL ES in particular, but backwards compatibility arguments are very tricky in general.
On the one hand you have all the people maintaining legacy apps and not interested in improving their code. They'll scream at you for breaking BC.
On the other hand you have other people complaining that the library sucks due to all the old stuff and why they don't just remove all the crap.
I noticed this in particularly in the context of PHP. People really hate some parts of the language (for good!) and commonly demand a big BC breaking release that fixes all the bad parts. But every time something is fixed (obviously breaking BC in some way) there is a big outcry about wtf the developers have been thinking and whether they are all braindead - well, the usual stuff.
So really, before you start calling people idiots because they didn't keep comparability with an older version (or here even a completely different version), think again. There probably was a lot thought put into the decision. It's not like people just say "Oh, let's drop this, just so everyone can change his code!"
On the one hand you have all the people maintaining legacy apps and not interested in improving their code. They'll scream at you for breaking BC. On the other hand you have other people complaining that the library sucks due to all the old stuff and why they don't just remove all the crap.
I noticed this in particularly in the context of PHP. People really hate some parts of the language (for good!) and commonly demand a big BC breaking release that fixes all the bad parts. But every time something is fixed (obviously breaking BC in some way) there is a big outcry about wtf the developers have been thinking and whether they are all braindead - well, the usual stuff.
So really, before you start calling people idiots because they didn't keep comparability with an older version (or here even a completely different version), think again. There probably was a lot thought put into the decision. It's not like people just say "Oh, let's drop this, just so everyone can change his code!"