I don’t think it’s been explicitly mentioned in this mega thread, but perhaps one way to “break the deadlock” or decision fatigue is to choose none of the options! 
What I mean by this: what’s the downside of merging much of the functionality from the community of tools into pip? So pip becomes the “one true tool”?
This might actually be what the casual user expects to be honest. They’re wondering why pip hasn’t improved (from their perspective, I am well aware it has improved A LOT) and what this “conda” thing is that people keep talking about. They’re looking and waiting for leadership.
I personally see a lot of pros.
2 cons I thought of:
- pip maintainers might not want to do this
- pip will need to commit and be seen to move in a direction towards a unified tool, perhaps moving at a faster pace than has historically happened (This isn’t really a con, but definitely changes the game. It’s a great opportunity and responsibility. I think you can do it though. )