We have steadfastly maintained binary and source compatibility for all non-@Beta APIs with every release, with the exception of removing methods that had been deprecated at least 18 months already.
We will continue this standard, although we are starting to acknowledge the possibility that the JDK 8 transition will give us unprecedented challenges in this regard, and it is possible we may be forced into a slightly-incompatible upgrade event in the future. I continue to hope it won't be necessary.