Chris,

I tend to agree with you. Most IT groups don't want to upgrade servers often. But they will look to new versions, and I think it's a good idea to do a few here and there. It is harder to support, but if you take care of your staff and limit turnover (easier to do if you try), they can support the old versions, plus they get to learn new things.

I think the expectation for SQL Server DBAs going forward is that you'll need to support 3 or 4 versions of the platform at any time.