How can a tag (say 2.4.12 like here:
http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/httpd/httpd/tags/ ) in svn denote the version any better? The version is 2.4.something or 2.2.something, not much clearer a svn tag of same would be. I suppose we could add the OpenSSL version to the zip file names if this is where you are coming from. I must admit it has been a bad year for OpenSSL! We've gone through five OpenSSL releases in the lifetime of 2.2.29. When it rains it pours!
As for my first reply, you have it partially right. My thoughts at the time were "Don't we do enough?" and "is it that difficult to upgrade by just replacing the files in the /bin and / modules folder (which is all that is really needed)?" But then I'm not managing 100 servers in a data center either.
If you are however, then you are working for (being paid) or own (making the big bucks) a commercial entity that has deep enough pockets to pay someone to do it and more than likely maintain your own svn. Download and extract the zips and do your own svn thing as you wish. As for updating a slew of servers, sc.exe and a batch file can go a long way here. Update one server manually, run the batch file and sit back and drink coffee.
I would not go as far as saying I've/we've "suffered" but we do not get paid to do this either. We give our free time to do this at our own expense (yes, we have expenses). I'm not saying you or anyone else do not appreciate this fact but we can only give what we have time and energy for.
As for STABLE, LATEST, DEV etc., we only do stable releases, no dev, we're not really prohibited from doing it, it's just frowned upon by the devs at the ASF. The latest is the stable, there just happens to be 2 stable branches. We have in the past had betas available, but the source code for those was released by the ASF as beta. And there in lies one of the key points, we only release when new source is released by the author/organization/etc. If not, you could have had 2.4.11 (for 2 weeks) but it failed during the 72 hour testing stage before being released.
As for downgrading, I cannot speak for Mario but I frown upon it which is why we do not make old versions available. Of course that doesn't mean you cannot hold onto the old zip files you have downloaded already in the past. I still have the original Apache 1.3.0 installer I downloaded from apache.org back in June 1998 and ran on Windows 95 horded away

You do not have a bad idea, but I see no benefit for a majority of our users who seem to do just fine with how things are now. It would also kill any opportunity for us to maintain a reasonably accurate count of how many packages go out the door. Call me crazy, but I like to know these things! It helps me understand our user base to some degree. It also allows me to see trends in our user base that a free-for-all svn setup would not. At least not as easily as I can get this information currently.
BTW, the biggest request has and I expect will remain to be have an installer.
Cheers
Edit: You'd think I'd have learned proper English by now.