That’s really not a fair statement from him given:
1. Based on their github orgs, there is effectively no separation between wordpress.org and Automattic.
2. The core WP contributors trac has a long history of not really being welcome to new contributions. Outside of the design decisions coming from Automattic, third party contributions either die in multi-year deliberations or get directed to the plugin system.
3. The development culture around WP, which largely revolves around the plugin ecosystem - has always trended towards paid plugins over OSS software.
1. Based on their github orgs, there is effectively no separation between wordpress.org and Automattic.
2. The core WP contributors trac has a long history of not really being welcome to new contributions. Outside of the design decisions coming from Automattic, third party contributions either die in multi-year deliberations or get directed to the plugin system.
3. The development culture around WP, which largely revolves around the plugin ecosystem - has always trended towards paid plugins over OSS software.