I think the distaste with projects like that is that it's a small group trying to impose their will (in often petty* ways) over all.
I don't get that feeling with the BSDs, even though it's literally one small group making nearly *every* decision about what goes into the OS.
*Gnome apps looking like gnome apps in all DEs and breaking my OS/DE/personal theming and USABILITY is petty AF. I don't care about your glorious vision, people, sit the heck down.