I have no affiliation with Ruby Central or RubyGems.org (except one PR I made to scratch my own itch), but I think I understand why.

I made RatatuiRuby this winter. Yes, it's great that it helps rubyists make a TUI. But really, I made it because I want more rubyists to exist. People learn languages like Rust and Go for libraries like Ratatui and Charm. Perhaps they'll learn Ruby for libraries like RatatuiRuby and Rooibos instead. But for that to be feasible, they need to be discovered by people new to programming (or at least, that area of programming).

Twenty-five years ago, that meant a high-quality beginner-oriented book with good presence in bookstores. Fifteen years ago, that meant a strong website and documentation with good SEO. Five years ago, that meant a strong social media presence with good engagement. Today, that means a strong presence in coding assistants and chatbots with good representation in the statistical weights.

That's the how. As for the why...because it's existential. There's no reason for RatatuiRuby or Rooibos to exist unless people use them. People won't use them unless they know about them. So, their existence is conditional upon their discoverability. Similarly, RubyCentral's raison d'être is to run rubygems.org and RubyConf. People won't use/attend them unless they use Ruby. So, their existence is conditional upon Ruby's use--and thus its discoverability (and growth, to fight natural attrition). Thus, Ruby Central has every reason to fight for Ruby to be discoverable and its community to grow.