From a cursory glance (I'm not part of the large haskell community), there doesn't appear to be any controversy. This just appears to be a decision of an indiv

From a cursory glance (I'm not part of the large haskell community), there doesn't appear to be any controversy. This just appears to be a decision of an individual to stick to what they think is the best platform/version for them. Since the individual was also the Release manager, seems like stepping aside was the logical thing to do if they do not prefer the latest version of the language.