That is a fair point! I do think though that it would make sense for maintainers to at least put out an open call to users and developers before dropping something as fundamental as 32 bit support. The reality is that not all users are going to be kernel developers, and even many developers today aren’t familiar with the workflow kernel development requires. Mailing lists, patch submission processes, and the cultural expectations around kernel work are all a pretty steep barrier to entry, even if someone does care about the removal and also happens to be a developer.

The other dynamic here is that the direction in Linux does come from the top. When you have maintainers like Arnd Bergmann saying they would "like" to remove support for hardware (like the ARM boards), that sets the tone, and other contributors will naturally follow that lead. If leadership encouraged a philosophy closer to "never break existing hardware" the same way we’ve had "never break userspace" for decades, we probably wouldn’t even be debating removing 32 bit.

I’m not saying kernel devs need to carry the weight alone, but it would be nice if the community’s baseline stance was towards preservation rather than obsolescence. :(