According to the help text of createrawtransaction, the following args are accepted:
Arguments:
1. "inputs" (string, required) A json array of json objects
2. "outputs" (string, required) a json object with outputs
3. locktime (numeric, optional, default=0) Raw locktime. Non-0 value also locktime-activates inputs
however, this does not match the named args ( https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/8152d3fe57a991e9088d0b9d261d2b10936f45a9/src/rpc/client.cpp#L84 )
Imo, backporting a breaking change to 0.14.1 is reasonable. Though, I'd like to hear other opinions.