Why not just move to 3.0?
Semver only says that a breaking change MUST be an increase to the major version. It doesn't proscribe an increase of the major version without a breaking change.
Even they've gone down that route. 4chan's been split into two domains with the NSFW boards on the original and the SFW boards (or as safe as 4chan ever gets) on the other.
In what way do employees not also take all of those risks?
The degree of risk might be different but employees are also betting on the success of your business.
You only have to look at the recent US election to see that people are taking all these risks.
Whilst I imagine a lot of people on HN see these risks as negligible they do still exist and it can go wrong.
What risk? That they'd spend money on something that made them no/less money?
Other than their initial investments business owners are protected from almost all the risks their businesses take on. Company debts aren't personal debts and individuals can't be forced to work to repay the debts they cause the business to take on. Worse still these safety nets aren't paid for as these companies don't make a profit.
Whilst I won't discount the work Bezos has done the reason he's come out 1000s of times better off than other Amazon workers is because of his initial gamble.
It's not like the workers don't take on risks either. Almost all paid work is paid after the fact. If your employer goes bust you don't get paid