Although the current development team has, in my own opinion, done a fantastic job rolling this project out, I noticed that they seem to be the only Decred development team as of now. I think that the community could benefit from individuals or groups running alternate software projects (think of bitcoin - the governance system is not directly involved with the creation of a new wallet). Is there anyone out there willing to create an alternate development team (think alternate GUI wallets)? What about a centralized web wallet service like Coinbase? Note that this is just a suggestion.
I agree with what you are saying but in my understanding, RFPs are exactly for that purpose of creating an alternate dev team. As was announced no decred devs will work on RFPs for first 3 months. I am sure they will be assisting but not directly working on anything. Also with GUI wallets, we have already seen 2 efforts from community members and such development is welcome. I am sure as decred grows in development/infrastructure & popularity, there will be demand for alternate solutions and we will see more sophisticated efforts from companies/organizations like Electrum, Mycellium, Coinbase etc. Its all a matter of time and demand. I would encourage community members to ask their favorite services to add DCR. This will show them that there is a demand. Although please don't make it tiring/unpleasant for them as happened with Poloniex Exchange.
One of the founding principles of Decred that is stated in the Constitution is a desire for more diversified development. As @sambiohazard noted, that is one of the reasons for RFPs and why the original developers will not directly work on the RFPs or be paid from the dev subsidy for the first 3 months. They serve to get external parties more involved in development as well as incentivize it. I think it's also important to note that the original developers still currently have to do a lot of work for RFPs even though they aren't directly working on them. It takes time to create them, review and select the best proposal, and eventually vet the work after it has been completed. Speaking from my experience leading btcsuite/btcd, I can assure you that proper code review is a mountain of work. Taking all of this combined, I think shows the original developer's commitment to inclusivity. TL;DR Yes, the Decred project, per its Constitution, absolutely wants diversification in development and the current processes in place are designed to encourage it.
I agree with this, but I guess what I am trying to get at are groups that do their own thing regardless of the project government and RFPs. Think of the number of choices for Bitcoin wallets and miners. I think that projects like that should be encouraged in addition to what the governance proposes. I am not downplaying anybody; rather, I applaud the hard work of the original developers and am very thankful for their commitment to the project.
Ah, yes, I agree with you there as well. I think it's healthy and paramount for success that community stakeholders work on their own things as well. Happily, I think it is already happening! For example, just to name a few, there are community members that have made a network dashboard, a Java GUI wallet, a PoS miner portal, and Python libraries.