It really depends on what the user views their job as. If finding and filing bugs in Appium is the job then you are correct, everyone should be on the latest version and follow along with every release.
However, my job, the one that pays my bills, is to test my employers product. I am absolutely happy to set and forget Appium while doing this, and to only update when a needed feature is added (for example, 1.6 for iOS 10 support). I'm happy to help where I can, and I'm happy to try a new version, but I would never use the latest in production. I see too many people on this board run into a mess of trouble because they update everything left and right and then wonder why they can't get any work done.
My $0.02. Nothing personal.