I wanna start by saying the choice for Unathi dev wasn't an easy choice. Firstly your essay is ten pages long, and it is EXPANSIVE. You've thought about a lot of different aspects of Unathi lore, how you would handle them, and what exactly you would change and how you would do it. The last two pages with interviews are extremely rich in flavor and absolutely excite the imagination. You're clearly dedicated, creative, and committed. Fascinatingly, you propose Unathi Enclaves in Tau Ceti, which coincidentally happens to be on my agenda to add alien enclaves to Tau Ceti in general, which really does show we have a strong common ground here. Popularity certainly has not decided my selection process in the past, as I've absolutely selected new maintainers which raised eyebrows and earned my criticism in the past. The issue here is that your competitor has also written an essay that really stands out. While it isn't as expansive it still hits on a number of hot button issues and also flavor-fully excites the imagination, while also enjoying large amounts of popular feedback. I can't say for certain how well I think you would fit in the team, because the only posts in your thread are negative feedback, but I think you're cool and you're one of the first friends I made on this server. I'm sure you'd fit in. It was a close call, but I did decide to accept Sleepy, but I wanna really encourage you to keep your eyes peeled for any future openings, since having someone this passionate about the lore and writing would be an absolute pleasure to welcome to the team.
tl;dr Application denied, but A++ work my dude, definitely try again later.