You make a good point. I am a chronic abuser in this respect. I install
everything that I can and therefore am apt to see more breakage. However, as
time has progressed most distros are much more stable than they used to be.
However, if one craves stability your advice is good. I would add to stick
with the repositories and not upgrade if you are happy with what you have.
If you want newer packages then enable the backportts repositories. The more
that you deviate from standard practice the more likely that you are to have
problems.