The patterns I've noticed, watching it evolve for nearly 20 years are:

- They draft behind others, and I mean this in a good way. They seem to eschew trailblazing new features, but keep a close eye on alternatives (esp. Postgres) and how use cases are emerging. When a sufficiently interesting concept has stabilized, they bring it to SQLite.

- Closely related to this, they seem to stay clear of technical and community distractions. They have their plans and execute.

- I don't know if D. Richard Hipp is considered a BDFL, but that's my impression and he seems good at it.