>>It's a native package, there's no need to develop a replacement, just fix up the thing we have (or entirely replace it if you wish).
Isn't the part in brackets developing a replacement?
If it is broken and no one is working on it, or is willing to work on it, it is effectively orphaned anyway.
The important things is there is a working viable system available for users to get the job done.
How that is achieved is up to the people doing the heavy lifting of development work.
If the maintainer believes it is not fit for release and it won't get fixed then the best solution is to drop it.
It is unfortunate that this decision has been made just after the Stretch freeze announcement has been made .
I, personally, think the timing of this may make it hard for others who do use it, without problems, yet do not have the necessary skills to take it over.
It effectively shuts the door on this package.
I myself have used it without problems but prefer to install the image without using the launcher.
Cheers.
Michael.