I am used to it with XMLDB, but apparently it is also applied on other Oracle functionality: new features being introduced while “only” applying a patch. Thanks to Doug, I was made aware on the whitepaper published by the Optimizer Development Group called “Upgrading from Oracle database 9i to 10g: What to expect from the optimizer”.
Comparing statistics
In 10.2.0.4.0 new DBMS_STATS functions have been introduced, that enable you to compare for a table from two different sources.