linuxmemes

That’s just the logical conclusion of continuing development. And even if the API stays the same, the shell might function differently, which could lead to extension bugs, therefore it is safer to break them all until the extension developer validates it for the new version.

You could of course force the internal stuff to be the same, but this would just stifle development and innovation.

In my opinion, if you can only use Gnome with extensions, you shouldn’t use it in the first place. Personally, I do have extensions, but they do so little that I don’t have a problem waiting a week or two until they update. Extensions don’t influence my workflow, they just are small quality of life adjustments (e.g. hiding the battery indicator when docked to my monitor and fully charged etc).