I don't think it has much to do with rational selfism that Jon McCann did not even know what Xfce was. This isn't some kind of rational decision but is simply symptomatic of much these people live in a complete bubble which by the way I feel doesn't apply to Microsoft devs working on Linux that are simply hired guns to work on whatever their boss tells them to.
It mostly affects the people who started out as volunteers, contributed to a project they cared about and then got hired by it. They were originally people who spent enough time online to actually donate their time to that and it shows. Pretty much everything that started as a hobby project rather than a business feels like it's completely staffed by people who lost touch with the world and what people outside of their specific little online bubble do and think and how people use their computers.
It mostly affects the people who started out as volunteers, contributed to a project they cared about and then got hired by it. They were originally people who spent enough time online to actually donate their time to that and it shows. Pretty much everything that started as a hobby project rather than a business feels like it's completely staffed by people who lost touch with the world and what people outside of their specific little online bubble do and think and how people use their computers.