> What exactly are they losing by just letting Animate be?

Maintenance cost (which you claim doesn't exist) of the engineers that they are planning to staff on other project they are assuming will be more profitable. Of course that's just a bet and not a sure thing.

> I have never ever ever had to change shell, Ruby, or JavaScript code because “the underling interpreter/runtime are EOL”.

I think we are living in different realities. Almost every (open source) project that I encounter that's 10+ years old isn't runnable without changes.

> Do you drink milk out of a baby bottle? Do you ride a bike with training wheels?

Do you still drive a Ford Model T?