> the existing Vaultwarden system relies on Bitwarden clients and therefore caries Bitwardens secure reputation is its main selling point.

I hope that this could be a starting point and not an end-point of Vaultwarden. It has gotten far on the shoulders of the Bitwarden giant. If it forked, would it have a large enough community to continue to carry that trust forward (including building new clients)? How much financial support would they need? Could they find a sponsor? It's a European project -- would the EU help fund it as a data sovereignty push?

Maybe, I don't think that reputation really should transfer anyway, and it's not something I would consider necessary for using it. (I mean, some scrutiny is obviously good, but I don't think it needs to be as big as Bitwarden).