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bbfa235
(Get the code!)
As of 2012-03-27 there is an update in Debian for TexLive (2011 version), it is quite possible that it even makes it in time for Ubuntu 12.04 (see bug#712521) .
So in a sense, it feels like this bug is no longer valid.
I see that the main point here is to prevent the same thing from hapenning again, namely having TeXLive lag 2 years or more behind the upstream version.
But still I feel that stability is more important in official packages than anything else, and I can think of an extra reason for TeXLive; it has many bugs of its own to worry about.
So if the same line of though was carried to other similar cases, simply by virtue of easing a laborious task (like downloading texlive installer and running it from command line), it would give a general feeling to end users that officially supported packages are not stable.
An appoach like the one proposed here would simply add nothing in terms of stability. There are unoficially supported ppas for things like the one you mention (updated versions of programs, etc).