> I can reasonably likely run a 30 years old compiled, .jar file on the latest Java version.

Great, pretty much every language ever can do the equivalent. Not what anyone is talking about.

> Java is the epitome of backwards and forward-compatible changes,

Is the number of companies stuck on Java 8 lower than 50% yet? [1]

[1]: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2023/java/

> Great, pretty much every language ever can do the equivalent. Not what anyone is talking about

Go already has a breaking change.

> Java 8

Yes