Definitely. And why if you roll your own packages for any reason (i.e. you need something in a more more up-to-date form than your chosen stable well-supported distribution includes) you simply must keep a close eye on the relevant projects to make sure that you don't miss an important hole filling fix.

FYI: I run Debian/Stable where I have a choice and stick with the provided versions of everything as a general rule, though I currently have nodejs, npm, and some related modules compiled from other sources.