The distros are stopping us. I gave up Kubuntu precisely because they were dropping KDE3.5. Then I began distro-hopping, which turned out to be a good thing because I found Arch Linux and the KDEMod repositories. It turned out fine for me, after a few months of trying out different distros, but I found myself unable to recommend a good linux distro to my friends anymore.
Suddenly all distros were dropping the good and stable 3.5 version for the 4.0 and 4.1 KDE versions which would only convince my friends to stick (or go back) to Windows. Yes, of course, the new versions needed users that could report bugs and test drive the new functionality, and I understand that was the reason why all distros started including it. But what about those who just wanted to keep using our systems like we did just 6 months before? Most distros just dropped KDE 3.5 without leaving much of a choice. Yes, there is gnome, but there are some people who can't stand it.
I realize most distros has some form of independent repo which allows you to install KDE-3.5, but those shouldn't have to exist at all. We should have had the choice all along.
Was it the fault of the KDE devs? I don't think so, it was the choice of the distro devs who decided users should be their alpha/beta testers without offering them a choice, other than using more advanced distros, or keep using the older versions.