I sometimes look at these decisions being, and often not being made, by Matt and his team, with incredulity.

Another such case, is the lamentable lack of resource in the plugin repository which was left to fester for years and now is a monumental task to do anything useful with, consumer-oriented or marketing-wise.

At the grand old age of 67 with an International career in software sales & marketing behind me, its easy for me to ask myself "what would I do?" but then it becomes obvious what's happening here.

Often, although I don't know the resources available, I do know how to solve a problem, but I think back and the cause of the problem often lies in the question ~ "Would I have I known what to do when I was their age?" And the answer, more often than I care to think about, is ~ "probably not".

So, dear Matt, here's my advice ~ whether you want it or not ;-)

If you want WordPress to survive and prosper in the next few years, this is what you have to do, without waiver. And without listening to me or anyone else, for that matter, who would divert you from this path ~

1) Define very clearly, and in detail, what you want WordPress to become and where YOU want to take it ~ in other words, what is your end-goal? What do you want WordPress to be when you are finally ready to say, "...nah, I had enough. Somebody else's turn now"?.

2) Now, with that picture firmly in your conscious thought, go there in your mind's eye. Really go there in your head and look all around and imagine what the technical landscape looks like, and the WordPress ecosystem, the key players and other stakeholders.

3) Finally, look back from that vantage point, and see all the steps you need to take to reach where you and WordPress have arrived, there in the future. What did you need to do to get WordPress there? Where did you concentrate your resources? What were all the steps along the way? Then write it down and share it with the key players and stakeholders, not just those on your need-to-know list.

I do know that every great achievement starts out with a vision. But those that make that vision a reality, communicate the vision clearer, and then deliver on that vision better and more completely.

But I don't have a clue what that vision is for WordPress and I have no idea whether WordPress.com theme authors are part of it or not.

Perhaps Matt, as part of step-1, you might drop in and tells me?