It has always been like this. The only way to get glory and money in the Python space [1] is to set up a new package manager or package repository or both.

Active State, Enthought, Anaconda, now Astral.

[1] Discounting pure SaaS companies that just use Python but offer no tools.

Active state, that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time.

So you know him then?

Heh, Sonatype - Maven - Nexus, Gradle Inc - Gradle (both Java).