I think the problem with no-one picking up the baton on a stalled release is just a different angle on the same participation problem -- what little resource there is gobbled up by non-RM activities (some of it self imposed overhead as you outlined in the other thread).
So my concern with the proposal -- are there really wiling/able RM's waiting in the wings in these periods? If they're there -- are they afraid of stepping on an RM's toes, or of drawing a line in the sane for the half-approved backports? (I have personally never RM'ed. To me it's intimidating and unknown and with a log of competing work it's hard to step up and tackle. Maybe we should make it make a condition of PMC membership at least once per decade?)
