GPL requirements don't apply to just making modifications. They only apply when you publish the modifications for others to use. In other words, they have no effect on your freedom, they only serve to protect other's freedoms by restricting you from imposing non-free terms on those other recipients of your published code.
Admittedly, this does have a clearly negative side-effect: it causes incompatibilities in cases that otherwise would remain free. But even that is not the case for your own modifications you use yourself and don't publish.
Admittedly, this does have a clearly negative side-effect: it causes incompatibilities in cases that otherwise would remain free. But even that is not the case for your own modifications you use yourself and don't publish.