Was the controversy really about the need for the feature? I thought most people agreed it was a great feature to have, and most of the arguments were about `:=` vs re-using `as` for the operator.
"The straw that broke the camel’s back was a very contentious Python enhancement proposal, where after I had accepted it, people went to social media like Twitter and said things that really hurt me personally. And some of the people who said hurtful things were actually core Python developers, so I felt that I didn’t quite have the trust of the Python core developer team anymore."
Source: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3292936/guido-van-rossum-r...
Note that Guido also was in support of the walrus operator, it's not like he stepped down because he disagreed with it.
We've spent decades debating on the merits of spaces vs tabs, and Vim vs Emacs, and a ton of other completely pointless stuff.
What you're hoping is just a pipe dream, people will get invested in the most petty and asinine stuff out there, and take it as a personal insult if you disagree.
[1] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0572/#alternative-spelli...