Interesting because I was bitching the other day about how not obvious it was to switch from one Bitcoin implementation to another on Start9.

I was switching from Core to the Knots and it was not at all obvious what steps needed to be taken in order to make that happen. A non-charitable interpretation of that could very easily point at favoritism towards Core over Knots at Start9. I have no idea what the leanings are on this matter at Start9 though.

I haven't experienced what you're saying so I can't speak one way or the other on that but my sense of the situation is that Start9 is still reacting to the Core/Knots issue that has grown in attention more and more as Core30.0's release approaches.

Ultimately, I don't have too much to offer on this other than my take based on some recent experiences.