I don't think equating lack of voting rights and lack of influence is fair
in terms
of the DOM work.
Just as in the XML SIG, where what was said was read and discussed by members
of the XML WG, so are all postings to www-dom read and discussed by members
of the DOM WG. Not all postings get direct replies, but the influence on the
specs has been large. The people who take the time to read the specs and
post to the www-dom list are not being ignored.
Those who are interested in the current DOM discussions will find the
archives
for www-dom at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-dom/
Lauren