shmigs.
The main problem for the devs has been that bagholders have donated very little to push the coin forward.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=448003.msg6220629#msg6220629It seems most were just happy to sit back with their coins and do nothing, while the devs worked their asses off.
We have tried numerous times to get people to donate for bounties, but the interest does just not seem to be there or its a case of "I am holding on to my coins, I am sure somebody else will donate".
The hope was ( and still is ) that the community will start taking a more active role.
This is a slightly nearsighted sentiment.
Those who invested their funds at 60, 80 or even 100 satoshi could not be expected to donate those funds as just to donate $100 to the developers it would cost them $1000-$2000.
I have been pretty vocal several times about what I felt were key issues and roadblocks in kittehs path.
I offered to help strategize a plan of action but was not taken up on the offer. That in itself was disappointing as I believe that there were many forms of action we could have taken. Mergemining was not one of them.
We all have lives to live and other responsibilities so it would be selfish of us to hold it against the team for wanting to move on with their lives and careers. We can't necessarily expect someone to waste their time on something solely for our benefit. As much as we may not like this move, we all need to do whats right for ourselves first.