There seems to be a misunderstanding regarding “the dev team”. The so called “dev team” are some (not many!) fulltime developers, paid by NabuCasa, but the majority of the dev team are people like you and me, that want to give back to the community by developing code, @petro is one example.
So in reality the dev team is actually more of a community, that works in their free time for the project. A classic open-source project. Everybody can join and make suggestions for changing the code.
Most of them don’t fit the guide lines setup be “the dev team”. That doesn’t mean it would be a “bad card”, it just doesn’t hold up to the standard that “core” HA cards need to. Alarmo for example, is a really great integration and works really nice. Nonetheless it would not fit the guide lines for a “core” integration, because it has a seperate UI for itself (and some other things). This is frowned upon for integrations…
I appreciate the explanation. I understand the concept but not so much how everything comes together for it to be what it is. I also can’t even begin to imagine what goes into an open source project of this size and I have a lot of respect for the devs that contribute to make it what it is. That’s one reason I pay for Nabu Casa, to give back what I could. I wish I knew more so I could contribute more but unfortunately I don’t. I actually don’t even like posting feature requests and have deleted several before I even posted them because I feel like I’m bothering the devs with something they don’t need to be bothered with. Lol.
How everything comes together is a different thing. Nobody knows how that works
No, seriously, it’s not that complicated, it just looks like that from the outside, and what makes it complicated in reality, is the sheer mass of people to handle.
From top to bottom:
Level in hierarchy
Who?
Note
1st
Paulus
Last instance, if he says no, it’s no
2nd
Core Dev Team
Employees of NC
3rd
Members
Most active volunteers, can be considered part of the Dev Team.
4th
Code Owners
People responsible for one or more integrations, like @petro
5th
Contributors
Community members who contribute to various parts of HA
Base
Supporters & Users
This is you and me, here in the forum, Discord, Facebook, etc.
This is not a complete list, and there might be people in more than one level, there might be sub-levels, but it’s just to show a little example.
If you’re a developer, you can develop some code, and submit it to the repo of HA on Github.
The next level will be the code owners. They are responsible to check, and see if the code is valid, fits the guide lines and all that. They are as well responsible for the code to fit into the integration, they’re the code owner of.
If the code owner gives there go, the code will get further up, and the dev team decides, if the code fits into HA. They’re responsible for the bigger picture. Does the code make other things buggy or invalid, will there be some other area, where this code might cause issues, all these things.
If there are problems, the last instance comes into play - Paulus decides what to do.
All this gets a little mixed up, because people are in many cases “members” of more than one level. If Paulus writes some code (what he does surprisingly often), he’s all in one, developer-to-code-owner-to-dev-team
In theory, all the NC employees are just members of these different levels. You might want to see it like a company, where Paulus is handling paid and non-paid employees.
But please note, this is a very minimalistic approach of an explanation, the reality is a little more complicated, as usual.
A lot of people have their NC subscription for that reason. I do as well.
And trust me, if the input is not nonsense, it is welcome! Feature requests in this forum are exactly for that. You propose and describe a feature, people discuss it, and if things go well, someone will pick it up and develop said feature.
This sub forum is not a direct path to the developers, they might take a look inside this category from time to time, but it’s not like if a FR gets enough votes, it will be developed. The better it is described, the higher the chance, someone will pick it up and will either develop it by himself, or takes the input from here and makes a feature request on Github. That’s where the developers come into play and what I described above starts…
I extremely appreciate that explanation. That’s one of the things I enjoy so much about HA… the community. For the most part, everyone is willing to help and will do what they can to answer someone’s question. The dashboard that I started with compared to the dashboard I currently have is a testament to what I have learned with the community’s help. HA also tends to be a little additive because when I get stuck there’s no putting it down until I figure out a solution.
I would really love to learn how to develop my own frontend cards. That’s the one thing that I haven’t stuck with and solved. I have basic programming knowledge and have tried to utilize some online tutorials but I get lost rather fast. I’ve tried the approach of using someone elses card on HACS but I don’t quite understand the dynamics of Github and forks or branches and how to go about starting. For example, there’s a custom cover card that I’d love to change from it animating blinds opening and closing vertically to curtains horizontally but I haven’t had any luck. Hopefully one day I get it and if I do I’m sure I’ll be able to use what I learned to develop more and then maybe start making a contribution back.
The so called “dev team” are some (not many!) fulltime developers, paid by NabuCasa, but the majority of the dev team are people like you and me, that want to give back to the community by developing code, 
