It is interesting that this analysis reaches the opposite of my own conclusions about all of this:

"The tech industry has a hero problem ... "

Eich supporters were arguing that it is okay to be imperfect if you make good contributions in an agreeable manner. Allowing imperfection is the opposite of idolizing heroes.

" ... an organization that did not see it as a problem for other employees to use their web properties to promote anti-LGBTQ hate ... "

There are a number of problems with this statement. The organization did not necessarily agree that an attempt to protect perceived marriage traditions, however contrived, amounts to hate. Furthermore, the hate purported to have occurred was from years ago and has no recent equivalent. Should past indiscretions be used to judge current capacity?

" ... when cis and hetero allies made muted versions of the same points, they were praised."

Who was praised for what and by who? The impression I got was that most of this debate was mudslinging from angry people on all sides.

" ... none of the Mozilla leaders anticipated that their choice of Eich as CEO would be criticized so strongly. If we take them at face value, they did not understand why anyone would think that queer people's rights were relevant to an open-source software project -- surely they must have been aware that LGBTQ people worked for them ... "

One of the main problems with this is that the supposed offense against human rights occurred in the past and related laws and legal decisions have made that entire argument completely irrelevant. What the leaders did not expect was that the irrelevant past would be considered critical to current technical leadership. The implication is that past political activity should be evaluated when considering management candidates which is a radical departure from the usual practice.

" ... it’s unrealistic to expect queer families to prioritize “doing good” by using an open-source browser over their own ability to marry ... "

One of the most important parts of doing good is forgiving and being tolerant. Browser preference never had any connection to ability to marry which is now quite solidly protected by the full force of the law of the land. What is at risk here is the ability to allow qualified contributors to do technical work when some aspect of their past appears in retrospect to be antisocial.

"Tacit acceptance of silencing and of abuse of power runs throughout our culture, but that doesn't make it okay in the specific instance of tech culture. "

And so it is just dandy that the author and others have been abusing power by silencing an unwelcome voice.

This is labelled the dark side of meritocracy, but what scares me about this is the dark side of accountability. People who happen to have had popular views or no views or who lied get by just fine while those who ended up on the wrong side of political wrangling are doomed to suffer in a kind of purgatory as if their politics were as important as their technical contributions.

" ... and the CEOs of the other wage-fixing companies ... "

The wage fixing issue is completely unrelated and also misunderstood. Top programming talent is a scarce resource and these companies had every reason to impose discipline on themselves. What this shows is that the author isn't really interested in specific political points, but a generalized quest for justice which is misguided and unrealistic.

"What does it mean to defend "the open web" if the vision of "the open web" is only constructed to serve heterosexual people?"

What does this mean at all? Where is the gay/hetero stuff in the protocols? I don't see any of that anywhere. I am speaking as a gay person who uses Firefox as my primary browser, often as part of my advancing of the gay rights agenda. What I see here is another tragic version of what happened in Israel. The abused became abusers to absurd and horrific effect.

“Brendan’s biggest flaw, IMHO, was his inability to connect and empathize with people.”

So he was great technically, but what people wanted was another sugarcoated candy man who would smile and be friendly to everyone because what is important is working the crowd. Competence is a second rate concern. The open web is about getting along and being popular. Who cares if anything actually works or has any relevance?

"I suspect that only Mozillans were surprised to see Eich’s homophobia recognized for what it was: public action."

Mob rule is an ugly thing. Such a Faustian bargain can never set anyone free.

"... I once shared the love for Mozilla and belief in its mission that so many at Mozilla have."

Then you realized that someone more powerful than you had opposing political views, so even though the political agenda that upset you was completely and utterly defeated years ago you made that political conflict into the center around which all the rest pivoted and look what that got us.