Is it even really true, though? This feels like the kind of idea that circulates among techies who feel like "their people" wouldn't engage in that kind of politicking, even though it's been obvious everywhere I've looked that we're just as capable of making a mess of an organization as anyone else.
I don't know. You could be right. I've found my share of intensively conniving and political techies too. Even some that were highly competent/skilled but had this passion for politics, and a tribal instinct of building a clique of a bunch of followers steamrolling over everyone else wherever they went.
But on the other side, the non-tech infiltration route is also real.
Yes, but the perception seems to be that those people are non-technical people who felt empowered to become involved because the project encouraged non-code contributions like documentation, bug reports, and helping out in the support forum.
The reality as far as I've seen is that the people injecting politics into the discussion are developers, not "normies". The perception exists because some of us have a stereotype of a developer as someone who's only interested in the technical details of a project, so the people who bring unrelated concerns to the table must be non-technical.
