Umi was designed (by me at Metaplex) to solve a JS compatibility problem at the time. We were in a phase of uncertainty between web3.js and (what was at the time) an ongoing web3.js v2 rewrite. To solve this, Umi offered a set of interfaces such that switching from one to another would be just as easy as offering a new set of implementations for these interfaces.
I naively expected people to use Umi as their main framework and no longer worry about the web3.js v1 or v2 underneath.
The reality is that devs reasonably ended up using Umi mostly for Metaplex related tasks whilst keeping the rest of their stack the same. This meant peopleās code base now contained a duality of type definitions for the exact same concepts and had to keep converting them back and forth.
Kit took a different approach by not positioning itself as an opinionated framework with bells and whistles but as a vast toolkit that provides the foundational type system for working with Solana concepts in JavaScript.
When we released it, we fully expected opinionated frameworks to emerge from it ā with the added benefit that now all these frameworks would rely on the same types. We were trying to promote a healthy variety of opinions maintained by different teams in the ecosystem.
However, a year later web3.js is still in the picture. We work closely with the Solana Foundation devrel team which is working on some great Kit-based frameworks (s/o to Gui and Cat there). Thatās by working with them that we realised Kit would greatly benefit from a simple modular plugin system. It would not only make it easy for framework developers but also improve the developer experience of vanilla Kit.
At the end of the day, no matter how many teams you talk with or how many community events you organise, you can never predict how a library is going to be received until itās out there. I do believe Kit is an incredible piece of software and many JavaScript developers would agree. Weāve just got a bit more work to do to make this opinion less controversial.
It's hard to see why people who like Umi wouldn't like Kit.
The way I see it, Kit is what Umi wanted to be but never became.
I wish people could set their ego/tribalism aside and judge these things in good faith.