I use Sequel far more than Rails, but their relative importance is entirely different, and I suspect Ruby would be still be a minority language if Rails had not happened. Even if we take into account the numerous other contributions anyone could make, could they make up for or match Rails' impact? Doubtful. Hence, I find your claims a stretch.

If Evans were to purge the politics from contributions to the community, then he would be a fine benevolent dictator, and would manage something Matz has failed with (amongst English speaking contributors, at least). That would probably require purging some of the people (as far as possible), as happened recently. Could he do that?