I have heard that 2.2 had a different garbage collector than 2.3 and could cause crashes and slowdowns more so than 2.3+ releases. You can set the minimum target so the best thing is to test on an actual device configured with your minimum target and make sure your app runs well there before releasing.
As time moves on those older devices are going to become less attractive. Where they go after there owners move on I don't really know? Probably not going to get much action on older devices anyway.
Just between Amazon and Barnes & Noble, there are about 12 million 2.3 Android devices in the market right now. These 12 million devices have become deprecated to 1st gen since September 2012 and both of these companies have Android 4 devices on the market.
If you start tapping into the device specific API's that aren't part of core Monkey, then as a developer you really need to start making some tough decisions on your minimum support level.
From the end user perspective, older versions of Android are usually running on slower hardware and so generally they are going to have a better experience with newer versions of Android and newer hardware. Bottom line, do some homework and testing to determine your minimum supported Android version and if possible some hardware specifications as well.
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