IIRC it started as a guy eating pizza in front of the sea. Later, when it got traction, he made his own company around the project and got external support of big companies.

I guess the long times to merge are because it is a very opinionated project. (But I'm not using it or following the details.) If you agree with his opinion you will be happy. If you disagree you will be unhappy. The nice part of open source is that if you disagree, you can fork the project.