> Is it -c:v or -v:c?

Sure, I agree with all of this. Like I said above, the syntax (and, even more, the defaults) isn't great. I'm just arguing that "improving the syntax" should not mean "hiding complexity that should not be hidden", as the linked project does. An alternative ffmpeg frontend (i.e. a new CLI frontend using the libav* libraries like ffmpeg is, not a wrapper for the ffmpeg CLI program) with better syntax and defaults but otherwise similar capabilities would be a very interesting project.

(The answer to your question is that both -vcodec and -c:v are valid, but I imagine that's not the point.)

> The biggest problem is open source teams really don't get people on board that focus on customer and product the way commercial software does.

I believe in this case it may be more of a case of backwards compatibility, with options being added incrementally over time to add what was needed at the moment. Though that's just my guess.

ffmpeg doesn't go away. it's still there. people can use tig and git, having something that isn't insane can live in harmony with the other thing.