Many would say that's the problem; i.e. that he should have had more impact. Check out the history of Conda.

right but "BDFL left" is clearly the wrong thing to blame when "BDFL never cared enough" so it doesnt matter if he left

That’s right. And we switched from eggs to wheel’s on Guido’s watch, but that was from him being a good leader and letting other smart people do clever things on their own.