its more about blob data than image formats. and they build an ecosystem.

the same way they decode the data. you can also detect them. if your ecosystem is unreliable and constantly being patched against, it will not grow. i think there is also a discussion on knots about using plugins for filters. so people can write scripts to filter stuff and dont have to know C to filter things.

i also work on making my own node/client implementation, trying to solve things i mentioned above. but that's outside of this topic. and its too early to talk about it.