Evan wants to design Elm as thoughtfully as he can, and has been deliberately resisting community evolution. Eventually it will get too big and too useful, and he'll lose the ability to make big breaking changes easily. So he's tried to maintain control of the direction of the language and community during these early years while he figures it out. He's trying to reduce the feedback loop and come up with the best possible base before it starts to scale.
It feels like it's stabilizing. I expect that over the next year or so this will change dramatically and it will become much more community driven.
' during these early years' should feature prominently in their docs/website if that is case.
If you go to http://elm-lang.org/ they make it looks like its production ready. No mention of breaking changes/beta ect. You have to choose one or the other .
It seems like communicating this approach to the community might be helpful for some. The poster's perspective is not unique (see the links in this thread). An evolution from benevolent dictatorship to democracy has advantages and precedent. Communicating with the community these intentions is important and a sign of respect and maturity. I think in itself it would be stabilizing.
It feels like it's stabilizing. I expect that over the next year or so this will change dramatically and it will become much more community driven.