I'm not sure what reason they would have to wait. If they're not interested in changing the architecture and everything on redpanda's side stays MIT licensed, the only maintenance work will be to pull in the changes. Sounds completely risk-free. Sounds like insurance.
A mirror that strips out the branding does. And the way Redpanda is treating their trademark would make me extremely nervous about using software with their branding in it, so that alone is a good reason to start a soft fork.
