I don't really understand people complaining about a new board with a new gen CPU. I would usually always buy a new board for a new gen to ensure compatibility, and for new features on the board.
I've debunked the CPU upgrade argument many times before. When you see people complain about it, it's because they want to complain, not because there is a good basis, but because of their bias against Intel.
The following are reasons why CPU upgrade paths across architectures are
not a good idea;
- It will always be a compromise; a new CPU worth upgrading to will probably be better off with a new motherboard.
- Support beyond two architectures will be hard, and such rapid CPU upgrades are rarely worth it. Generally, it takes the third generation before the performance gains justify an upgrade, and offering good support for that long is unrealistic.
- BIOS support from motherboard makers will be flaky at best, they currently "struggle" to actively maintain motherboards for a year. If there were to be a meaningful upgrade path, they would have to commit to 4-5 years of support (even if it was just for select motherboards).
- CPUs, motherboards and RAM usually go together, and if you upgrade one or two of them, then you have leftover parts. Selling for a decent price isn't easy in all parts of the world.
- Everything comes at a price, this isn't some trivial feature they can just enable.
AMD would be much better off focusing on stable firmware and BIOSes from day 1 instead of promising cross compatibility they can't deliver on.