> I would really love to know: who are the people pushing the current version of contracts, who do they work for, and why does the current version of contracts meet their needs if it's so flawed?

It seems the lead author and champion is a guy from Bloomberg, of all places.

https://isocpp.org/files/papers/P2900R6.pdf

As the story goes, these guys pushing contracts systematically pushed a broken proposal by dismissing criticism with bureaucratic chicanery such as purposely ignoring feedback and criticism by claiming that if other people voted in favor of their proposal then they shouldn't need to bother with feedback from those who opposed.

I mean, look at the reaction. It's not technical. It's not principled. It's bureaucratic and grounded on petty politics, and dismissing yet again a failure to gather consensus as personal attacks and a political issue.