I absolutely agree. It’s easy to complain about such obsolete components, but I can confirm that it’s a nightmare to support so many devices for many years. Every change has to be tested on every supported device. What could be a way out of that?
My personal opinion: The first patch to an open source packet, that doesn’t immediatelly go upstream, is the first step through the door of mainainence hell. It’s a spiral you can only escape from by declaring the product EOL, that needs that patch. Avoiding own patches and forcing regular updates of Sailfish OS maybe could make live a little more easy for Sailfish OS itself.
Additionally to that comes all the apps, that still have to be supported as long as possible. And this is the point, where I can’t imagine any practical of efficient solution any more, how to maintain something like that.