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The biggest issue is generally server support. Finding servers that support older versions or even package managers that still have the older unsupported versions can be miserable. Thankfully the Sury packages are still around as an alternative, but that's only valid if you're running a system you have full control over (ie a VPS).

A lot of cPanel or similar hosts are also retiring old versions as they hit EOL [1][2][3][4][5] (those all support 7.4 still but most have indicated that will be dropped next year as well). This has made hosting transfers more and more difficult if you don't want to go through the process of upgrading.

The process of upgrading Wordpress sites isn't so bad (generally there's no work, honestly). But not all CMSs are that simple and it can get more laborious when you want to upgrade a Laravel or Symfony site, especially if you've skipped a few versions.

Of course, at the end of the day, it's up to the client to provide budget for these things and if they don't/can't, you just have to push back on their other requests until they do.

1: https://in.godaddy.com/help/retiring-old-php-versions-41164 2: https://www.bluehost.com/hosting/help/php-version-selection-... 3: https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/215082337-What-... 4: https://wpengine.com/support/php-guide/ 5: https://getflywheel.com/wordpress-support/php-on-flywheel/#p...