I think the capabilities of the Angular team are quite respectable as well. Speaking of "reach" and thought leadership makes think of the fact that these guys are working at Google! This seems to have several positive aspects:

a) Possibly a more solid stance on development (stable APIs, not ditching a project and rewriting (Sproutcore -> Ember). Sorry if I simplify too much here.

b) Being a little "strategic" for Google: In this podcast [1] Igor Minar seems to suggest that they have some influence with other people at Google who work on web standards.

Logic: Google goes great length to optimize Chrome performance - therefore needs to understand how modern websites work, therefore may want to influence how modern web development is done (through their own js framework) so that the Browser can optimize better etc.

c) Also note the existance of a Chrome extension [2] for displaying and debugging Angular.js models in the browser.

Logic: Google wanting to promote their browser - therefore adressing important multiplicators like web developers with useful tools for development, leading to more websites being developed, tested primarily on Chrome, making use of Chrome features etc.

Do you agree? I haven't heard too much commentary on the "big picture"!

[1] http://basementcoders.com/2011/08/episode-41-interview-with-... [2] https://github.com/angular/angularjs-batarangfor Chrome helping with displaying