@donnacha of WordSkill - Unfortunately yes, that is the case. You can either be a fanboy and blindly follow everything Matt and the WordPress Foundation preaches as gospel OR you'll quickly become an enemy if you question anything.

It doesn't take much research to confirm this. You can find plenty of examples, dating back to the very beginning of the WordPress project, of snarky comments by WordPress Foundation representatives anytime someone tries to engage in even a friendly debate regarding decisions made by the Foundation.

Typically they will fall back on the WordPress core excuse that if you want to be heard, contribute to core. Which is really their way of telling you to shut up and that your opinion doesn't matter to them.

I agree that people that contribute code regularly to code should have more sway when it comes to implementing features, enhancements and changes to core. But contributing to core should have no bearing on opinions and ideas related to the community as a whole and issues such as WordCamp. They are two different things.

The quickest way to get on their shit list is going to be to question or disagree with them on something in public. They can't stand being challenged, no matter how friendly the challenge may be presented. They hate it. They'll deny this is the case. But their action and responses speak louder than their denials.