Programmers working for Google have little chance to get promoted, and if they do get promoted, it’s often because they launched a product. This provides an incentive for any Google programmer who wants to earn more or get a more prestigious job to write new projects and to abandon existing ones. You’re not getting promoted for keeping apps working on a new version of Android, that’s just what people expect from a team.

Until Google fixes their incentives, we’ll keep seeing Google launch new versions of existing apps every year. Sometimes, that’s good (people loved Inbox!), sometimes that’s bad (whatever the fuck the new media picker for Android 14 is supposed to be).

Regardless, programmers rarely make these decisions. If a team lead decides to pick a certain direction, possibly because that’ll get them promoted, there’s not much you can do as a programmer or engineer.