Deleting other people's code/features is always a point of friction in any code base, not just open source.
People deeply care about watching their work survive and be used for eternity, and when they watch their work get deleted, or replaced they generally feel someone is going after their place.
Unfortunately this often goes against how progress works. If the state of affairs has to improve, newer things have to replace older things.
Emacs is just one of those things that can't move on because its existing users expect not only backwards compatibility, but the tool remain relevant to advanced users. Im guessing any change would evoke such a response.
People deeply care about watching their work survive and be used for eternity, and when they watch their work get deleted, or replaced they generally feel someone is going after their place.
Unfortunately this often goes against how progress works. If the state of affairs has to improve, newer things have to replace older things.
Emacs is just one of those things that can't move on because its existing users expect not only backwards compatibility, but the tool remain relevant to advanced users. Im guessing any change would evoke such a response.