I love the Python community. It's really a leading light for open source software. And it shows what transparency and good governance can achieve.
Although I appreciate the engineering hours that Meta, Microsoft and others give, its pretty miserable still compared to the value that the whole tech industry (and beyond with data science) extract from Python and other open source software.
I did my bit at JPMorgan 8 years ago, convincing the tech leadership team to sponsor PyCon UK, plus a recruiting stand and supporting a group of junior developers from all JPMorgan's UK locations to attend. I left JPM 5 years ago now, and they are still PyCon UK's headline sponsor.
Compared with the enormous benefit we got from Python and its open source ecosystem, it was a totally negligible cost.
Real contributors are exploited by those who work for the right corporations, do very little and go for any clerical position of power.
Do not be misled by the LWN articles, which are very kind and always namedrop the deciders. It is selective reporting.
Well, HN isn't censored in this regard (unless you believe their influence extends here too). What specific criticisms do you have against "the inner circle"? And what evidence can you show for them?