Such an approach can greatly help GUI developers in general

For complex GUI software it is impractical to test new releases against the
myriad of combinations of compatible library versions on the variety of
target distributions.

Many times upstream developers simply don't care, and rightfully so. Their
time should be focused on the actual development of features, bug fixes or
security fixes. If developing free software is not paid and done after hours,
then there is not much time left to squander in the compatibility impasse
that sometimes distributions throw at you.