It's not sarcasm. Yikes. The attached image is a little funny, but nothing malicious is meant by it. It's just meant to add some levity to the situation. Again. Yikes.

The original Nests that was a fork of Jam was closed, but open to anyone that wanted to contribute. Several people did contribute. This was because Semisol wanted to keep his indexer that he wrote private. This has been discussed numerous times. It was roughly a year, closer to 9 months if memory serves correctly, not 18 months that you mentioned.

In January 2024 I began discussing working with Kieran and in February 2024 a brand new open source client launched. Here's the announcement that discusses the launch https://habla.news/u/derekross@nostrplebs.com/nostr-nests-2.0

Gate keeper? No. I actively tried to get Semisol to work on Nests for the better part of a year and tried to get people to contribute, including Vic, but ultimately Vic did not want to work with Semisol and decided to go his own route. 

Ultimately it was for the best. Now I get to work with Kieran on a fully open source and Nostr first client that I've always wanted for Nests. 

You were there for all of this. I'm surprised you don't remember it this way. Maybe your bias is showing?