so-called "insular design choices"

I mean, didn't they preemptively locked the discussion thread to just developers and insta-closed (and threatened to ban folks creating) other form topics about it trying to get some user feedback on the record?

I agree with your points that gnome gets to do whatever gnome wants, and maybe folks on the internet could try chilling out once in a while; but that said: "insular" is just a straight-up accurate way to describe gnome's process here if Brodie's reporting on the situation was accurate. ‍️