Great article, Justin, but I don't share your optimism. The reason WordPress won out over PHPnuke, Joomla, Drupal and all of the other early CMSs out there is that it was a friendly tool non-technical users could pick up and use.

Increasingly, it seems like WP respects this core group of users less and less. Gutenberg and blocks are great for many, but there are still a lot of folks who want the simplicity of the classic editor. And in the rush to monetize WP, we're now subjected to plugin spam and nag ads in the admin. (Talk about comparisons with GeoCities!)

Plugin developers need to consider the specter of competing with Jetpack. And while Jetpack has been great for some loyal developers, I do believe it has stifled innovation in a number of areas. Who wants to compete against a one click install and a bunch of admin nag screens?

Even though this is all very predictable, it is a day I thought would never come because of Matt and all of the other really good folks involved with this project. But the nice thing about the Net is that it has a history of correcting mistakes like these.

WordPress ignores its core users at its own peril.