IANAL, but I believe a business can decide not to promote an employee for any reason with the exception of protected characteristics (Gender, race, etc.)
That being said, this is unreasonably shitty, and you should look for a job with more normal management practices. If they’re pulling this, there’s likely a lot more you’re not seeing.
You could simply continue to use the older versions - with Linux, you’re not forced to update if you don’t want to. Since it’s open source, you could even continue modifying it freely. I think the people behind Linux are being a bit overkill in supporting older hardware in the most recent releases.