Being practical... let's suppose that the recommended version is bumped up from 5.6. What sort of impact is this expected to have? Does the data show that it's even worth discussing? Only 28% of sites currently run on the currently recommended version or later, according to https://wordpress.org/about/stats/ .

Of course, we can't enter an alternative universe and discover what percentage that would be if the recommended version was something less (or didn't exist at all). But, I'd suggest that 28% at this stage means that, whatever is recommended, will not translate into a useful outcome for developers. The WordPress website could recommend anything it likes, ranging from running PHP 5.6+, to feeding slices of Dutch cheese into your power supply every 5 minutes. But if the vast majority pay no attention to the advice (and presumably a good chunk of that 28%+ are running PHP 5.6+ for reasons that have nothing to do with WP recommending it - PHP 5.6 has had a stable release since August 2014), then, well, I suppose I ask myself why I even invested time in typing this out! :-)