This is effectively a "why can't FreeBSD be more like..." thread. By stating the thread's subject, you are inviting the opposite line of argumentation. It's also a flawed comparison between FreeBSD and a particular Linux distro.
There will be Linux distros with newer versions of packages than their equivalents in FreeBSD ports and those with packages absent from the ports tree. Newer isn't always better. There is both newer software that fixes bugs and that which introduces new ones.
Many Linux distributions have a practice of backporting specific security patches from newer versions to older versions. This, in theory, can work well enough except where the backporter fails to understand the patch they are adapting and applying to an older version, resulting in a new (possibly worse) bug. This has occurred with respect to the Debian project for example.
