> The barrier to jump in, or fork off and start over is far lower compared to a browser or file format.
False. Its way easier to switch browsers than for a company to switch to an alternative Python implementation. Cpython is the defacto standard that the other implementations follow. What you are suggesting is that if Python 4 breaks your code base you are free to fork off Python 3 and keep the just the changes you like. This is absurd.
> The biggest threat to an open source project is therefore not Big Tech collaboration, but project abandonment and lack of maintenance.
Python is in no danger of abandonment.
Anyhow. It appears you represent Google, so know this: We are watching carefully. Any attempt to subvert Python will be publicized and have a disproportionate response from the user community.