We don't know who the dev is tbh, like there's a rumors its someone from ETH or ETC core dev team but again those are rumors and unverified I would not base my decision on those alone. What I would base my decision on though is the community and the popularity ELLA is gaining lately. There's no premine so no chance of a dev dumping his bag halfway through the project and running off to do something different. Tbh the fact that ELLA is the successful community version that ETC was suppose to be says that we are still in the early days of this one and soon it will attract even more attention I mean we already got Topia to show us some love, next up Bittrex and Poloniex!