The protocol had been in development for that long, most compositors for a few years, and clients change their implementation up to their own schedule.
I see it as a “failing” of the bazaar way of development, linux can’t just say we now use this API. So there is an inherent not enough user on the new API to bother porting, and due to not enough user it is not as streamlined/stable, and you have a vicious circle. But I have to say the issues with wayland are heavily overstated, and I think it is out of this cycle, and is getting quite a bit of steam.
I see it as a “failing” of the bazaar way of development, linux can’t just say we now use this API. So there is an inherent not enough user on the new API to bother porting, and due to not enough user it is not as streamlined/stable, and you have a vicious circle. But I have to say the issues with wayland are heavily overstated, and I think it is out of this cycle, and is getting quite a bit of steam.