Semantic versioning to the rescue
Couldn't MS solve all this by using semantic versioning? We all know the joke about MS products v1 and v2 being useless and you only taking it up on v3.
In semantic versioning anything before 1.0 is really up for grabs and a shifting sand of behavior that may be changed up to 1.0.
So, this kinda blunder? Easily addressed, by Net Core 0.4 or 0.5 naming. And then we can stop making fun of v1 MS products.
But that's not all. MS can also innovate for semantic versioning. Take Silverlight and other kinds of MS abandonware. They really need a new numbering system indicating they'll quite possibly kill it really soon down the road. I propose starting with negative numbers - a few years down the line bump it up to 0.1 when you are serious about it. Silverlight -2.0, Windows RT -3.0. Windows Phone (7 - 8). Even hardware: Zune -5.0,
Kidding aside, they do deserve kudos for listening and eating crow. MS has a long way to go to restore trust from all the times they cut down branches developers were sitting on. Hopefully this about face is the start of a trend rather than isolated common sense by a few of their upper managers (not holding my breath). Taken individually, junking dead end stuff makes sense. Do it too often however and your aggregate problem is that developers won't trust any of your new tech.