I'm an active core-contributor to WordPress, and I maintain a core component (Privacy) currently.
Even within the core-contributor community, there is a lot of friction, particularly with the "less popular" components. Accessibility was the first to snap, with the lead resigning, but not after other big contributors took long breaks when needed most. BDFL Matt hasn't helped heal the fractures and has hurt even more components since. The Privacy component, for example, was the butt of a joke during his WordCamp Europe keynote, boiling down our efforts over the past year as asking users to take cookies, which hurt Privacy team morale (the Privacy team primarily worked on creating a standardized way in the core to identify and export personal data, and help people create Privacy Policies by standardizing how plugins can identify what data they collect).
The largest issue is React -- it's so different than the rest of the WordPress core, that 90% of the core developers can't work on Gutenberg issues. WordPress is primarily PHP, and if JS is used, most places jQuery is the framework of choice. It's dated, but it works quite well still. React is quite the departure from all of those technologies, and will cause gigantic rifts in the community. I do believe WordPress will survive, but with thousands of plugins lost forever due to lack of updating.
Even within the core-contributor community, there is a lot of friction, particularly with the "less popular" components. Accessibility was the first to snap, with the lead resigning, but not after other big contributors took long breaks when needed most. BDFL Matt hasn't helped heal the fractures and has hurt even more components since. The Privacy component, for example, was the butt of a joke during his WordCamp Europe keynote, boiling down our efforts over the past year as asking users to take cookies, which hurt Privacy team morale (the Privacy team primarily worked on creating a standardized way in the core to identify and export personal data, and help people create Privacy Policies by standardizing how plugins can identify what data they collect).
The largest issue is React -- it's so different than the rest of the WordPress core, that 90% of the core developers can't work on Gutenberg issues. WordPress is primarily PHP, and if JS is used, most places jQuery is the framework of choice. It's dated, but it works quite well still. React is quite the departure from all of those technologies, and will cause gigantic rifts in the community. I do believe WordPress will survive, but with thousands of plugins lost forever due to lack of updating.