Was there some enormous outcry to replace WordPress' editor with something like Gutenberg that I missed? Gutenberg seems like a solution in search of a problem.

Why are the WordPress powers that be so focused on this project when there are thousands of bugs and feature requests that are ostensibly more important, and could use the attention of talented developers?

I really hope this isn't forced on us without an easy way to replace it with what we've been using for years. That would be a huuuge mistake...