It's interesting that a lot of this isn't a problem in FreeBSD due to the Base system and ABI guarantees. FreeBSD Ports also averts many of the grumblings about distro packaging.
Having worked with FreeBSD before in a Real Product, I'd have to say that the main reason FreeBSD doesn't have a problem with this is because most of it hasn't changed since the 1980s. Not even because it's particularly good, but just because nobody wants to work on large tracts of the codebase. The normal feeling is "bwah, this is complicated and ugly. I'll just leave it alone..."
