> Collabora people being on a board awarding contracts.

That is indeed problematic. I think it was particularly problematic that we had a chairperson of the board who was also the CEO and (part?) owner of a company, Allotropia, that would participate in tenders (it was bought by Collabora a couple of years back).

But - that situation is resolvable, and was resolved, by him no longer being on the Board of Directors; and beyond that - is resolvable by a strong separation of the body managing tenders from the BoD, so that employees and stockholders from Collabora can't participate in the process. What happened instead is that tenders ended altogether.

> now add the friction of startup/company type people vs "nonprofit believers",

There is a third group, which is foundation employees and contractors. Our last Board of Directors contained 2 foundation employees, one person who is a regular contractor or freelance service service provider to the foundation. He has since resigned, although so have two non-employee directors (with two of the three resignations being for mysterious reasons not disclosed to the trustees).

Add to this the fact that the Directors aren't physically at the offices, and that the foundation is managed mostly by the Executive Director, who also prepares the budget, handles official correspondence (hidden from the trustees of course) etc - and you get a very interest group.

> but in the end they need to spend more time understanding the problems seen from "the others" perspective

The thing is, that it isn't two sides, one against the other. It is one powerful clique which, so as to solidify its power, expels a large group which it perceives as difficult to control. And the majority of the LibreOffice contributors are passive here. Now even more passive with the expulsions and the abrogation of the electoral process.