Comment by Aurornis

> Only a very, very small fraction of open source projects get to the point where they legitimately need committees and working groups and maintainer politics/drama.

You’re not wrong, but those are the projects we’re talking about in this thread. uv has become large enough to enter this realm.

> Bottom line is, BDFL works when 1. you aren't asking people to bet their business on you staying benevolent 2. you remain benevolent.

That second point is doing a lot of heavy lifting. All of the BDFL models depend on that one person remaining aligned, interested, and open to new ideas. A lot of the small projects I’ve worked with have had BDFL models where even simple issues like the BDFL becoming busy or losing interest became the death knell of the project. On the other hand, I can think of a few committee-style projects where everything collapsed under infighting and drama from the committee.