My impression is that most criticism (certainly the criticism I've found valid and troubling) has been focused on whether Go is community driven, or controlled

My impression is that most criticism (certainly the criticism I've found valid and troubling) has been focused on whether Go is community driven, or controlled by a small team of core developers who just happen to currently work for Google. Certainly there is some criticism than seems to focus on the idea that Go is controlled by Google, but I feel like that's, at most, a vocal minority. Then again, perhaps I just discount it because I find it pretty silly! > Put differently: if Russ Cox resigned from Google, I imagine he'd probably remain involved with Go and have the same amount of influence. I agree 100%. (Of course, if your concern is how Russ Cox is managing Go, that probably doesn't make you feel better. If your concern is how Sundar Pichai is managing Go...well, I think we can both agree that's not a real issue.)