[loup-vaillant]

> If we really are to apply the spirit of open-source, wouldn't the community-pro action here be to open the project up to additional maintainers to pick up the slack and delegate out the work?

That requires people the original maintainer can trust. They have to be competent enough, honest enough, easy enough to work with, and the maintainer has to know that.

Moreover, many project shouldn't grow big to begin with. Sometimes much of their value comes from their small size: they're easier to learn, easier to deploy, easier to port, and most of all easier to maintain.