While I agree in spirit with dropping legacy code, bumping minimum requirements, pushing hosts to advance their technology stacks, etc... I think we have to keep in mind just how many average, everyday, non-technical users WordPress has.

When you're dealing with this many users, sometimes even the smallest changes leave people in utter confusion. With so many variations amongst hosts, and so many non-technical users spread across a bunch of different platforms, a complete re-write of the codebase could cause widespread issues across hundreds of thousands of sites (if not millions).

There's no question that we all want more, bigger, better features. But can you really fault them for wanting to ship these couple of enhancements, instead of sitting on them for another couple of months? Like Sallie mentioned, for many users, the new media widgets are a big deal.

At times, I also get frustrated with the pace at which WordPress introduces new features. I have to remind myself of its user base. And the vast sea of plugins that add 100x the functionality of WordPress itself. And the fact that all of it is available to me for free. And how I've been able to make an entire career for myself because of it.

I appreciate the efforts of the 4.8 team, as well as everyone in the community who continues to move WordPress forward... regardless of its pace.