Removing $this-> from codeigniter 3+

Dev will save no time at all,  because it breaks compatibility for absolutely no good reason. All previous code will need to be fixed to work with this new syntax.

Sorry to say and this isn't personal attack.  So please don't take it as one.

But its comments like this from developers like yourself who stifle innovation on PHP.  You expect your 10 years code (I know an exaggeration) to still work with new releases.
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No offence taken. I understand your point. In fact, the best is a good balance between innovation and compatibility.

I'm not against evolution of the framework. What I hate is when everything is changed every six month and it break everything. In particular when it's changed so the code is more beautiful... or it's the new trend to write code that way... and it adds nothing new.

At the very least, if the dev team decide to break compatibility, there must be a good reason and a detailed upgrade guide.

For this particular example, I don't see the benefit in removing "$this->".