There may be lots of skilled developers around, but when it comes to Cryptonote there are only a few who are really familiar with the code base. And I think all of those people are already preoccupied with their own projects. And having witnessed how well CZ has been able to handle emergencies and attacks, I think having one CZ is far more valuable than having even 5 outsiders come and try to start from scratch and learn this somewhat notoriously odd code base from scratch. Plus, it's not like he's disappeared or anything. He's still around here.

While there's work to be done on BBR itself, growth is more likely to come from 3rd parties building things to increase activity. It's not like anyone needs permission from CZ to keep BBR growing. We're probably at an impasse now where people who want to build things are nervous that CZ has abandoned BBR, and CZ himself is not sure if there's enough interest still in BBR to continue. So it's a chicken and egg situation.