Comment by LeifCarrotson

Even if the environment it's used in is not static, the world it lives in is not static.

I work in industrial automation, which is a slow-moving behemoth full of $20M equipment that get commissioned once and then run for decades. There's a lot of it still controlled with Windows 98 PCs and VB6 messes and PXI cards from the 90s, even more that uses SLC500 PLCs.

But when retrofitting these machines or building new ones, I'll still consider the newness of a tool or library. Modern technology is often lots more performant, and manufacturers typically support products for date-on-market plus 10 years.

There's definitely something to be said for sticking with known good products, but even in static environments you may want something new-ish.