I would suggest the that assumption is not correct, but I can see what it can be interpreted differently. Internally, we have used a number of personas for modelling different categories of developers, and have done what we can to cater to all of them. Hobbyists are important!
There are a number of different things to decompress in this thread:
- review guidelines/requirements
- review turnaround times
- the Curse acquisition
I will try and address all three in turn.
Extensions represent the first time that code, written by third parties has been allowed to run on Twitch. Being the first time, means that we are at a starting point. There are a number of things being done now, that have not been done before (by Twitch at least). The result of this, is that some interactions are less than ideal. Our review process for Extensions is a good example of this. The guidelines requiring developers to have a live channel for the entirety of the review process is less than ideal. It however, was something that was able to be implemented internally, and is functional. This is something that will continue to evolve, as extensions evolve and mature. For what it is worth, support for obfuscated code also fell into this category. The desire is to make things better.
As a part of launching a new product, internally, we have been trying to level up a number of people who are authoritatively able to review Extensions as they come in. The message I received back from the review team is that there is some coverage over weekends, but, if an Extension includes something that is flagged for review by a more senior team member, that will require additional time (as such a person needs to be available). There is however a team of people working on reviewing Extension submissions.
There is some overlap between the old Curse mods review team and the Extensions review team, so good call on that front! It is actually broader than that, but that was our starting point many months ago. This too, will continue to evolve.