- It isn't just a development detail its going in the installer filenames, and the site and the news item and the little text every player sees and the lobby update warning etc etc etc
- Because version numbering isn't a psychologically neutral concept. While the versioning system they've started to use is nice, the version number they're starting from, is not, and bundles in ramifications that appear to have been disregarded and ignored with no explanation because it was easier to multiply by 100 than to think about it.
- The engine devs have demonstrated a spectacular failure to justify their new versioning system. RTFM is their answer, and the threads pointed at don't actually justify the version number, only the versioning system.
- Even if they do justify the 83 number in the logs, the parts in question are buried under a gigantic fillibuster, making the answer useless. It's like saying "the answer is somewhere in the universe go find it", it's probably true but it's not an answer.
- Engine devs appear happy to waste our time and their own. The question could have been answered and justified ten times over given the character count of RTFM replies and responses, and the time spent trawling through the meeting minutes, not finding the answer, and going over again.
From what I have read, it was Hoijui that suggested 83 1 and 11, and cited he preferred 83 himself. Nobody agreed or disagreed. No justification was ever put forward, and 83 appeared in the next RC diagram, having never been discussed or greed upon.