I think it is important to discuss this point in particular. I don’t think that anything in ROS 2 is written in stone. The decisions that have been made are generally made with the best information at the time, but as we gain more experience and use cases, these can all evolve. So things that are still on “first iteration” are mostly there because nobody has had the time to evolve them to where they need to be.
(clipping some good points by William)
I am typically more on the “let’s get something in and iterate later” side, but when building a middleware system, some advance thought does need to be put in. While my point above about pieces evolving is true, we can’t always improve them in the current release (since we generally guarantee API compatibility). So my opinion is that there should be some design work done up-front, but then things should move along and we can iterate towards a better solution later.
Circling back towards whether instantaneous chat helps or hurts here, I have also seen it work on previous projects. But it will mean that everyone involved (including at Open Robotics) needs to make a dedicated effort to be on that chat and to conduct design discussions on that chat, even when they are with people in the same building.