The one drawback of the BDFL model is that you need a person, and a very specific kind of person at that, which tends to be irreplaceable - to sustain it.

Redis has succeeded because of antirez. I really wish it can continue doing so for the long run without him. More than anything it reminds me of Steve Jobs' death (although gladly this is in much happier circumstances and I wish antirez many more decades of hacking). It's true that a decade later Apple is still doing great, but you just know things would have been different if he was still around.