Most systems have entities flowing inside them at any given time. Softwares have data in their pipeline, cultures have people living in it.

When you change one system to another with no transition, the entities that are already flowing will most likely suffer. This is because they expect the system to be of v1 and suddenly the system is already at v2. They need time to adjust or they need to be kept in v1 until they finish going through the full pipeline.

And these old v1 entities, when they suffer, might, in turn, cause new entities trying to get inside the system to suffer too. Either by blocking the pipeline because of their confusion, or by cutting ties with the new ones and letting them live without guidance, or they might even try to inflict suffering out of malice.

This is why transition is important when you change your system. Let the old entities flow through the system in v1, or give them time to adjust to v2, or better yet, set an incentive structure so that they are punished when trying to block v2 but rewarded when trying to champion it.