@ddalex: Got to agree with you that API breaks are one of the biggest things that sour developers to a platform (or prevent them from getting started in the first place). On the other hand, supporting an API until the end of time is a sure way to make sure your platform is full of buggy cruft.
That being said, it really is disheartening to see messages on here from developers that did good work in the past, but gave up up developing for Maemo because rewriting their already working programs because of API breaks isn't something they want to do in their spare time.
For my part, I'm willing to give Nokia the benefit of the doubt here, but I'm really hoping that there aren't too many more API breaks ahead of us before they're willing to commit to support an API for the long term across various devices and and Maemo releases.

-John
*goes off to drink more coffee. Please forgive any incoherence.*