Weird architectures weren't supported to begin with
This is definitely the most reasonable case I've heard made from this argument, and it's changed my stance on the issue.That said, I feel the cryptography project handled this poorly. I encountered the issue when one day, installing a Python Ansible module the same way I did the day before required a compiler for a different language that I've never used before and that is hardly used, if at all, in the rest of my stack. The Ansible project seemed to be taken by surprise, and eventually  I found the root upstream issue, where the initial attitude was "too bad". Some people making those comments worked for Red Hat / IBM, Ansible is heavily backed by that. What company cares more about Linux on S390 than Red Hat / IBM? I would suggest none. So the fact that they had this attitude and community reaction to me suggests the problem is not one of expecting free work for a corporation on a non-free architecture. It was IMHO a combination of a lack of forethought, communication, and yes, perhaps a change that is overdue and will just be a little painful. The suggestion to maintain an LTS release while people figure out how to proceed is the right move.