[Victor Stinner]
... 
By the way, I'm also surprised to see that on 11 "+1" votes, only 3
added a comment. I'm not sure of the "value" of "+1" without a
comment. Does the voter know Stéphane and/or saw his work. How did the
voter make their decision? In the past, these comments helped me to
vote when I wasn't sure about a candidate. For example, if someone
showed a strong support, and I trust the voter, I follow their vote
(well, taking a decision is more complex than that in practice, but I
hope that you see my point).

I voted +1.  I haven't had significant interaction with Stéphane but certainly recognized the name and had a favorable impression.  But of my own knowledge, I have no strong opinion either way.  So my +1 was driven primarily by the strong endorsement you gave.

Was that worth writing up?  Not to me ;-)  It's probably unrealistic to imagine than _anyone_ in the future will be well known to a majority of then-current core devs.  I only want to hear from those who _do_ have a strong opinion based on significant experience.

So I'm disappointed that I've seen nothing from those who voted -1.   In the absence of an explicit message, I can assume a +1 voter is happy enough with what the original proposer said.  But in the absence of any -1 voter explaining their reasoning, I have no idea what to make of it.