I disagree. It takes a different personality and position to maintain a project like this. If you aren’t the biggest asshole then you’re at the mercy of the biggest asshole, which probably means you’re going to end up making ideological decisions rather than engineering decisions. Especially seeing has how politicised everything is these days.

Thus has exactly the communication style that is required to support the project.

And yes I have been on the end of a Theo quip. It’s a badge of honour because ultimately he was right.