Java has an almost unbroken history of hassle-free version updates, all the way back to Java 1.0. (Okay, okay, I know you have a specific anecdote of a broken version update. I said “almost”.)

The one major exception was from Java 8 to Java 9. There’s some good reasons why Java 8 to Java 9 wasn’t a smooth upgrade for all. But that’s a story for another day.

For slow-moving enterprise IT departments, that would involve a major “update Java” project. Which involves budgets and people and not doing other things in the meantime.

Hence why Java 8 is still so prevalent in enterprise world.