Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see what makes it different from any other open source project. Of course it's going to have technical leads and core committers, it's not like you can go force a PR merge on jQuery trunk any time you please. I'm aghast that you would even suggest such a thing. And CLA's aren't fun, but they're hardly new, either.[1] If you don't like that it's Google, that's fine, but at least be honest with yourself about i…
To me the problematic part that makes it different to at least some open source projects is that all those technical leads and core committers are apparently employed by Google (and working on company time, I assume). That could mean Google, and Google alone, gets to decide where it goes.
Honestly, the only criticism I'm hearing over and over is "because Google", and considering their track record with Chrome, Android, Angular, Polymer, Go, and literally hundreds of other open-source projects, I'm perfectly okay with that.