Project modules on D6

One of the Drupal sites where I am involved is currently on 5.15 and we are considering the move to 6.10, partly fueled by three other 6.10 sites where I have found some D6 specific modules which are very attractive. In reviewing the modules currently in use in the 5.15 site, most either have 6.x versions available or the seem to be orphans, fortunately orphans which are not very important to what we are doing with that site. The notable exception to this are the modules related to projects, which are quite important to what we are doing. Most of those seem to only have 5.x releases listed on the project page, but in most cases poking about in the Issues reveals that there is an unoffical 6.x release attached to one of the issues. This is not confidence inspiring for those of us who just want things to work and don't look forward to diagnosing strange behaviors in not-quite-tamed PHP code. But, I am struck by the fact that this site is running Drupal 6 and has a vast number of projects ... rather the core of the thing, in fact ... and those seem to be behaving well ... at least to my casual experience.

So, what's the deal here? Is drupal.org on 6.x simply because there are enough willing bodies to leap forward and fix things as issues occur or are these unofficial modules something that a mere mortal might actually use without expecting to spend all their free moments ... and probably some other not-so-free moments ... gluing things back together. There are some nice things that are Drupal 6 only that I would really like to have, but we really can't move forward without basic project support.