One use case for this that comes to mind is for patching multiple major versions with a particular fix.
For example, you might release a hotfix patch today that fixes a bug in all major versions of your software. Using calendar versioning as a patch number would give something like
- 3.4.20200106
- 2.1.20200106
- 1.5.20200106
making it very easy to tell whether a particular version includes todays fix or not.
Godot recently announced that they are going to allow you to disable engine features[1].
From the announcement post:
"We got requests from single developers working on 2D games that they would like to disable the 3D editor and nodes from the Create dialog. The reasoning is that, if not in use, they just add clutter."
Of course you can stop being exploited as a game developer by leaving the games industry---but why should people be forced to change their career in order to avoid exploitation?