There is another reason that recalled while answering a newer question here just now:

Wladimir van der Laan's humble, intelligent, experienced, service-oriented, uplifting, tolerant, reluctant leadership style as lead maintainer of Bitcoin Core over a decade provided the original inspiration for me to consider returning to open source and working on Bitcoin Core. I think Wladimir is the gold standard and best example I have seen of open source maintainership that people can aspire to.