We have the same issue, only 5 servers and 10 clients to date but about to roll out across dozens of servers.
The custom install provides a work around but it is clumsy and still likely to cause trouble.
We really, really do need the client to be backward compatible with older versions of the server software. Not bothered about servers supporting older clients, upgrading the client is straightforward.
At the moment if we upgrade a single server we also have to upgrade the clients that access that server. If those clients also access other servers those servers need to be upgraded as well. Performing such upgrades on mass is a none starter.