I was just saying something like the aerospace world is super tight on configuration management to make a point. If the color of something changed it would have a different dash number on the part number. Not so in the oil filter world.
Look at other filter manufactures too ... Purolator changed their filter line 3 times over the last 15 years, and they use all the same old filter numbers. 98% of the population doesn't' understand configuration management, so just think how confusing it would be to them if there were only slight design changes made on the same filter that resulted in 3 or 4 different filter numbers over a short period of time. It would be a nightmare for the filter manufacturer also to keep track and data base/catalog of all the extra filter numbers.