I got the same idea. On XZ dev mailing list there were a few discussions about "is there a maintainer?" 2-3 years ago. It's not hard to find these types discuss

I got the same idea. On XZ dev mailing list there were a few discussions about "is there a maintainer?" 2-3 years ago. It's not hard to find these types discussions and then dedicate a few years of effort to start "helping out" and eventually be the one signing releases for the project. That's peanuts for a state actor.