In reply to Paul Lacey.

I have no idea - I've been using WordPress for 3 months, though I have taken time to try to get to understand the history, ethos etc... But I'm a reasonably good judge of character in general and I get no red flags when I watch the WP leadership speak. So, either they're honest or extremely good actors. I choose to believe the former.

Yet, I have recently come across various controversial things, mostly to do with censorship in the reviews/forums by Automattic staff. It's certainly hard to ignore. But overall I am pleased with what I see, which is probably easy as someone who both doesn't have any history with the project nor any particular skill with development and thus appreciate the shift towards a no-code end-user experience.

One thing I find somewhat encouraging and you might look into contributing is Classic Press - a fork of 4.9 that is modernizing various things and seems to be even more classically open-source than WP. In addition to providing a Gutenberg-free experience for those disgruntled with it, I figure good work done there can only provide healthy competitive pressures, and maybe some innovation as well. I see no reason why both couldn't exist mostly harmoniously.