I even half believed them, old stable systems tend to suffer from version stagnation, where the major version stops moving. Not that that is a bad thing, it is just a sign that your software is mature, it no longer needs a major version jump. but having a vestigial number makes some people nervous and for commercial software hurts sales so they find different ways to change it.

Apple stuck at 10 for a long time. solution: drop the major

Linux stuck at 2. solution: randomly change major