This is an odd bug. There are plenty of client/server command line tools in Debian that require both ends to be the same version. (“unison” is the most notable example I can think of. “syncthing” is another.)
This does not prevent them from being packaged in Debian, and it should not here, either. It is up to the user to ensure they understand how the tool works, and deploy it correctly. In this particular instance, the incompatibility between 0.28 and 0.29 was clearly detailed in the release notes. So, to reiterate, this “issue” doesn’t stop other tools from being packaged, and it shouldn’t stop this one either.
