Comment by keyle

   Around 2020, our old lead dev, a1ex, after years of hard work, left the project.  The documentation was fragmentary.  Nobody understood the build system.  A very small number of volunteers kept things alive, but nothing worked well.  Nobody had deep knowledge of Magic Lantern code.

Sounds like a bit of a dick move. Part of being a lead dev is making sure you can get hit by a bus and the project continues. That means documentation, simple enough and standard build system (It's C after all), etc. As a lead dev you should ensure the people on the project get familiarity with other part than their niche too, so that one can succeed you.