We understand your concerns about the various packages, but with any supported platform it is key that there is a fixed point of reference. For us, that is the LTIB. Customers are welcome to update the packages provided to newer versions, but any issues would first have to be duplicated within the LTIB, and if unable to duplicate, would require a Services contract to resolve.
Also, we provide extensive SQA testing on each release of our LTIB, which allows for us to release images with some level of confidence in their ability to perform. Any testing is a constantly evolving target as we include more items to test and update revisions. As far as I know, we are the only company to release test docs and results with our BSPs (check in the Test_Docs directory for our Software Test Plan, and Software Test Log). If we allowed the packages to roll with their latest updates, our test results would be unable to provide useful information on the current state of the build, and we would spend a vast amount of time debugging the packages instead of the BSP.
If you do need to stay up-to-date with the latest packages, our Linux third party partner
Timesytakes our BSP releases and incorporates them into their build environment and quality process that stays up to date with the latest releases from the various subprojects. As an alternative, if you have a specific version of a tool that you need incorporated into the LTIB as part of the standard build, our Services team can provide a bid on updating the LTIB to that version and adding appropriate tests to the SQA test suite.