fwiw, Matrix is also a democratic process: https://spec.matrix.org/proposals/#process. (As much as i'd love to be a dictator :P)
To be fair, one of the reason I use XMPP and not matrix is that I didn't hear about matrix until after I managed to set up my own server and get some of my entourage to use it too, about 5 years ago or so. Interoperability is the important part anyway, and I'll work on slidge-matrix when I fix/improve some stuff in the existing core/plugins.
Based on their Github profiles, 7 are affiliated with Element (either employee or CEO), 1 isn't