You may be surprised by the answer.
The only people having issues with newer games are the ones refusing to update.
Yes, if you update Android, some older installs on your headset may stop working. That's expected. You just reinstall updated versions and move on.
Right now, with the new server setup, that's not even a real limitation — it's just a choice.
I've updated my headset consistently since around firmware 20 on the Quest 2, and I've never had issues from updating itself.
The idea that you shouldn't update only makes sense in very specific edge cases that don't apply to most people.
Skipping updates only makes sense if all of the following are true:
If that's not you, then updating is the obvious move.
Yes, you might lose access to a few older titles. But if a game doesn't support newer Android versions, it's effectively abandoned anyway.
At that point, you have to decide if holding onto a dead game is worth giving up new releases, updates, and online functionality.
For almost everyone, it isn't.
The other edge case is if you rooted your Quest. Rooting required a specific firmware version and is no longer possible on current firmware. Updating would remove root access.
But this actually makes the case even more niche — a rooted Quest already has all the same limitations listed above, plus the added constraint of needing to stay on old firmware to keep root. That's an even smaller edge case, not a broader reason to avoid updates.