Tom’s already spoken to this in response to said mods. The mods that do this were not implemented in a way that would flow well with the way Team Radiant was working on it, they would have to do a crap ton of work to fix these mods to make them work well with what they plan to do in the future. And as for giving them direction, it would be a lot of extra work taken away from what they are currently doing to rely on people who aren’t getting paid to complete these tasks in a timely manner.
To quote Tom:
That’s not to say that they haven’t taken inspiration from what modders have done and what the community has seemed to like though, they are great at doing this.
Best case circumstances for using a modder. They take a great modder like @froggy, have that person move to cali (If they don’t want remote workers), teach them how things are done “Team Radiant Style”, shadow them for a week to make sure the person fits with the company and is following the practices the company has already established. All is said and done after interviews, phone calls, and scheduling conflicts. It’s at the very least a month to get them hired, another week where they are mostly useless to the company, plus possibly a trial period.
TLDR: It takes a while to add a new gear to a well oiled machine. And in the end… the gear may not fit!
Also Note: I am in no way, shape, or form against Team Radiant finding super talented people to join their ranks. They’ve already done an amazing job of finding coders, sound folk, and artists (ie: Tom found himself 
). I do not see them integrating new people as a bad thing, we just have to realistically consider (And i’m including myself here!) how much work would have to go into setting up their company for growth in the employee department.
Also Read As: Hire me Radiant, i’ll make you pretty art things i promise. 