You make a good point. Open (loosely used) enterprise software leads to committees and committees lead to kitchen sink specifications. CORBA, from a previous generation, had exactly that kind of bloat, W3C specifications likewise. The Java libraries show that in spectacular fashion. Maybe Sun thinks we need umpteen hash table implementations, but I think we would be better off with one well done.

Frameworks done by committee are even worse. God save us from W3C and the Apache Foundation.

Counterpoint: software from dictators: Python and Django.