> I wrote a book on Merb and was an active contributor.

It might be a situation where you see it differently because you were involved or benefiting from the way things unfolded

> That said, the Rails vs Merb era was mostly good natured competition [...] wouldn't describe any of it as toxic

Competition can be healthy, Rails vs Merb was anything but. Quotes from Yehuda himself:

••• "I was just so blinded by tribalism that I never even bothered to check how fundamental the disagreements really were."

••• "waging an all-out war against Ruby on Rails from inside of a company that makes its money selling Ruby on Rails deployment is a pretty bad life strategy"

••• "It's so easy for our brains to turn disagreements about priorities into value conflicts. It takes a lot of effort to see past that mistake."

https://yehudakatz.com/2020/02/19/together-the-merb-story/

Engine Yard's management took several strategic missteps over the years. One of them was stifling Merb. The quotes from Yehuda describe his difficulty in making the best of a forced merger.

Ezra's vision for Merb and DHH's vision for Rails were distinct. Both warranted development. Over time, I assume they would have collectively strengthened the Ruby community. It was a mistake for Engine Yard's management to have instead framed it as zero sum and forced a merger.