It has been obvious to anybody with experience in software development (me: just 53 years) that Gutenberg was a classic example of Second System Syndrome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect), doomed to failure, and that WordPress’s betting on it was a huge strategic mistake. You’re now seeing the completely predictable consequences.

Does anybody here read code? I thought not, or mostly not. Take a look at:

includes/js/dist/block-editor.js
includes/js/dist/components.js

These files are both in excess of 1 megabyte (1.4 and 1.9) and 35000 lines (39,143 and 57,212) lines of JavaScript with the rare, occasional comment. Does anybody know what this does? Is there a formal specification for what it should do? If not, is there any way to test it for correctness?

I thought not.

With the cramming of Gutenberg down the throats of WordPress users, the disdain of WordPress for its customers has become overt and the customers have reacted as customers are wont to do: choosing another vendor more responsive to their needs.

While the arcane and incompetently implemented architecture of WordPress makes it difficult to migrate to another content management system, after a while people will say “Enough: just export everything as a flat text file and let’s have done with this clown show.”

This was entirely avoidable, and if the Inner Party at WordPress had read the myriad one- and two-star reviews of Gutenberg before cramming it down, it needn’t have happened. But they didn’t, and it did, and so now is the time to turn our backs upon this, snuff the candle, and walk away. It was fun until they wrecked it. Farewell.