>  Why is this controversial?

Because you're missing the point, and arguing against a position nobody holds.

Absolutely nobody here is suggesting that everyone going off and doing their own thing and keeping the results to themselves is better than everyone going off and doing their own thing and releasing the results.

What some folks are suggesting is that some coordination would yield better results; that we can do better than the "everyone going off and doing their own thing" part of the above scenarios.

I believe Erik's point about "falling into disrepair" is that if everyone is spending time fixing the same issues, each on their own without any coordination, is that the resulting system will increasingly fail to keep up with the evolution of the surrounding world. Even if the code for all the parts I need to drive exist, that's not the same as having a running system.

Anthony