Rent Now, Pay Later!

the main issue will be if they do a major API update right before they do it. Remember the great "flattening"? We lost many great mods when they did that because of the amount of changes they did to base code while simultaneously changing every ID in the game, while forge was also actively undergoing a major API change in how it worked. So as a result many mods stopped being developed at 1.12.

If they did a massive API rewrite right before fully ending support for java, the community will either have to accept another divide or completly forgo the new update and stay locked on the previous.

Not sure if that is a good thing. Some of the best mods came out of someone finding a mod taking too long to update or the creator deciding to skip a version. They then created a new mod to fill that same role, and in some cases becoming the new defacto for that role.

Change is good for creativity, imo.

"added in the past decade" is 1.9 to now (1.8.9 released on 9/12/2015, 1.9 released on 29/2/2016).

Things "that anyone really wanted" (By which I mean the highlights of Minecraft additions):

• in 1.9.x:
  • The offhand and shields
  • Attack cooldown
  • Mending
  • Elytra (fireworks didn't work on them until 1.11.1)
  • Removed Herobrine
• in 1.11.x:
  • Shulker boxes
  • Totems of undying
  • Observers
  • Firework elytra boosting
• in 1.12.x:
  • Concrete
  • Recipe book
• in 1.13.x:
  • Swimming
  • Bubble columns
  • Phantoms
• in 1.14.x:
  • Rerolling villager trades
  • Other villager improvements
  • Raid farming for renewable totems and easy emeralds
• in 1.16.x:
  • Netherite
  • Piglin bartering
  • Fast automatic food farm (Hoglins)
• in 1.17.x:
  • Moss
  • Copper
  • Waxed Lightly Weathered Cut Copper Stairs
• in 1.19.x:
  • Sculk sensors
  • Allays (Non-stackable item sorting)
• in 1.20.x:
  • Calibrated sculk sensor
  • Amethyst sculk resonance
  • Bamboo wood
  • Armour trims
• in 1.21.x:
  • Crafter
  • Bundle
  • Happy ghast
  • Shelf
  • Copper golem

ㅤ

Mods? The features I think mods probably would not have done equally or better, or would not have come up with something as unique, are:

• Offhand
• Removing Herobrine
• Raid farms
• Piglins
• Sculk sensors

ㅤ

Others that idk whether qualify for the list:

• Mending
• Recipe book
• Villager overhaul
• Moss

ㅤ

(I'm talking hypothetically about mods here because I have not played old modded (or old versions at all, the first Minecraft version I played was 1.13))

(This is just my opinion combined with comunity reception of things, I'm not trying to argue)

so many launchers to pick from! i personally like Modrinth the most

oh yeah and most of those launchers allow for easy modding. want a modpack? click install, wait for it to download, and then just click play in the automatically created instance. want only a few mods but don't want to check endless dependency lists? what is it 2015? also just click install, the launcher will automatically download dependencies (and the right versions of them too!). worry that you'll install a fabric version when you wanted forge? or a mod for 1.20 when you need 1.20.1? relax as when you click "add mods" the launcher automatically applies filters that only show you mods that are tagged for your specific version (filters that you can still disabled though, it doesn't lock you out of installing a mod that's not explicitly tagged as fit for your version, but you know it'll work on it)

though don't get too comfy slapping that install button, there're still two things that can't be automated - incompatibilities between mods, and straight up broken files. launchers nowadays significantly reduce the number of headaches you get when modding, but they don't entirely remove them lol

I'm kinda shocked you've never heard of them but yeah, there's unofficial third-party Minecraft launchers you can get. CurseForge, Modrinth, and Prism Launcher are the top 3 big ones everyone uses. I personally use Prism Launcher simply because it's the easiest to set up modpacks for imo.