If project philosophy aligns with this approach, as stated by one of the team members in the article, then project philosophy needs to change.

Some time ago, I said that Gutenberg should have been presented as an option, not an eventual mandate. The same is true here. It sounds as if WebP is not advantageous in all circumstances. Like other posters, I use Polish, which has the advantage of being more nuanced than the WP approach.

Also, if WP commits to a particular format, it should ideally be one developed by a consortium rather than one company. Particularly if people connected in any way to Google are involved in the decision-making process, mandating a Google format could appear to be a conflict of interest, whether it is or not. “We should avoid not only evil, but the appearance of evil.” Cicero.