Wim used to always include the latest versions...
DriverPacks was much smaller then (it grew into the ten current packs).
Since we include over 90% of all available drivers for windows there is the potential for many conflicts when using the full set and especially with 3rd party DriverPack too. Most drivers are not written very well, In fact it is the teams consensus that they are oblivious to how badly they actualy do write them. The point is you just can't drop a driver into the packs. There is an entire process involved, Dump the hwids from the packs and the old and new driver compare and eliminate duplicates, verify signing, release to testing team, likely fail several times and then Beta, RC, and Release. Since there are only a couple of people active on adding drivers there is a huge amount of work to do and only a few people to do it...
We like to stay current but that takes a back seat to Stability...
This was a change the team made from Wim's original process.
We feel that Stable packs are referred to buggy ones that have all the latest drivers.
Just because a driver is new does not make it better... (Never use version 0.0 of anything 
)
It might be better but we don't know until it has been released and tested by a large audience.
We release our packs to the testing team as nightlies (alphas).
We have a few hundred testers with access to thousands of machines.
If a pack makes it a week on the testing team with no issues we consider it a Release Candidate (RC).
It often takes months to groom a nightly pack into a RC, once a pack achieves RC status it usually will be released within a week... We have a new set of graphics packs that are in RC status right now... and a mass pack that looks good for RC status too... 
There is much going on in the background (hidden forums) that is not visible to the public.
Like a bee hive, not much to see from the outside.
The short answer is being current takes a back seat to being stable. (No reported issues)
We primarily care that there are zero issues with our packs...
No BSODs, no crashes, no lost functionality, no lost performance, no bugs.
If all hardware is supported, and there are zero reported issues from our users.
Then we have done the best possible job, at least in the teams collective opinion.
8 million people download the DriverPacks a month (Assume multiple installs per download) and we have zero reported issues... How would you rate that on a 1- 10 scale .
Often times people will ask we add a newer driver.
I often ask them why?
They then seem perplexed...
So I then ask what issue they were having that the newer driver addresses?
Does it make your HDD faster? more reliable? What problem were you having with the old one?
They usually must meekly report they were having no issues at all. LOL
So I then press on What issue does the newer driver claim to correct?
They usually have no clue...
So why waste our time asking if the only reason to add the driver is so it reports a higher version number???? PLEASE... You just want bragging rights lol... Just shoot yourself OK?
In all likelihood the newer driver is probably just going to introduce bugs into an otherwise rock solid solution...
If a driver address' a known issue or adds HWIDs then sure... It goes right to the top of the list of things to do.
See what happens when you 'wonder' around here
Jeff
