Did anyone read this article from Jameson Lopp?
Not until your post. I've avoided it because imho the two sides bashing each other is the worse thing I've seen in Bitcoin in many years.
I've read a little into it now, but more like "scanning between the lines" than actually reading since some things I knew, some are not unexpected and some are just attacks imho (even if they hold good rationale, I still see them as attacks).
After this read/scan, the situation saddened me even more.
I was still not convinced by any of the parties until 1-2 days ago, but what convinced me were good, logical and smart explanations here @ bitcointalk (of which some I just got to read a bit late), not the preaching, attacks, half-explained half truth on twitter. I still believe that even Core could have been doing it better technically (since as PR/politics I know they don't excel, I don't have high expectations in that).
Without reading it, I believe Bitcoin Knots will never be able to replace or take over a first position of Bitcoin Core.
Crypto twitter is lead by who shouts louder and "trust me bro" logic, so long article will not be read by the "shouters" anyway. (or it will not be read because it's written by "the others")
And your belief underestimates the "power of the herd". I do hope that you are right, but I am still not as sure/positive as you are.
Imho, while it's a valid concern, it's not the core of the debate (heh). Imho the points are:
* somebody is pushing an agenda for getting tx censoring in-built into the most used bitcoin node software (which imho is equivalent to "legalizing" it as main behavior in the network)
* somebody uses this OP_RETURN debate as helper for that agenda (tx can already be filled with even more crap before OP_RETURN)
* @lukedashjr doesn't seem to understand that he's just a tool in this (I don't think that he's ill intended, I think that the discussions on fork/get his stolen coins are too far fetched)
* Core devs have not expected this "political backfire" and handled it incredibly poorly, risking - yet again - to lose a big chunk of community support
* OP_RETURN related change is imho not a must, so I am not sure why Core devs are pushing it this strong - I've read that it may be tied to a future feature but I don't know more details and those details may be useful for supporting them in the debate.