Anticipating the sunset

postgresql almost died when Greatbridge went under (A .com that hired most of the developers).
the core developers point out that it's not a coincidence that they all work for different
companies now.

they are enforcing the diversification themselves where a large project (say the kernel) gains
the diversification from the sheer number of people who work on it, but even there, for many
years Linus avoided working for any of the Linux companies, specifically to avoid the
appearance that any one company would have undo influence on his work

I've seen several other projects flounder when they core developer(s) have real-life things
cause them grief. the point that we need to watch out for this sort of thing is very true.