You're missing the point.the patches didnt change, but i was bit early mabye to do so.
basicly i doubt the patch will change anytime soon, due what they add woudnt be that smart to continue make bigger.
understandably that people want that content BUT for TInkerer is smarter to dont do so.
Whether the Patches change doesn't matter, it's about user psychology, the change log Spicy 3.61 can say "same as 3.55".
When the patches do change you end up with being inundated with people saying "Of course I have the patch, [and if you're lucky] I've been using it for years now" or in cases like this, you'll update the patch early with the updated version in your post (v3.61) but the file name stays the same (v1.0 for the Gnome mod, V1.1 for spicy... neither of which are helpful in telling what game version they will work with.), causing more confusion about what version they should be using.
When I see stuff like that the first thought through my head is that the up-loader accidentally uploaded the wrong file.
You didn't answer the question about whether the newer patches are backward compatible.