Here's the skinny:
All software producers ... "the Linux Kernel team or otherwise" ... periodically produce so-called
"major versions" of their soft-wares. These versions represent "lines drawn in the sand." In other words: "all
future development will only take place
ahead of this line."
Nevertheless, the producers
also maintain a retroactive commitment to a certain [number of ...] "
prior major-versions," which is to say that the undertake to continue to retrofit
(at least ...) "important changes" to those prior versions. (Their engineers might be making several separate patches to solve – as best they can – the same problem, within the context of each version.)
But they do that ... "only up to a point." Then, they declare
"EOL = End Of Life." This is the
"second line drawn in the sand," prior to which they will not undertake to make any further changes at all.
- - -
"Distros," meanwhile, are
consumers of the base software distributions produced by the "Linux Kernel" software teams
(and so on ...), tasked with producing "software bundles" which are
"their product." So, "it's
their job" to keep up with these things, and to produce "new
distro-releases" for you to consume.
(For instance,
long before(!) any Linux kernel's "end of life," they will have migrated their "distro" to use a
[much ...] newer one. "So that you'll never have to worry
your silly little head about such things ...")
Thus, as an end-user of "a Linux distro," you need only concern yourself with "the
distros" that your favorite distro-vendor has produced for you. From time to time, you'll see that they have moved their "distro" from one
<<insert_ software_ product_ name_ here>> to another ... "but, why should you care?"
Your base covenant with the "distro provider" is that "that's
their job!"