pockets of the people who run it? I know Wordpress and Mediawiki serve two different purposes, but that's not the point. The point is, one is modern and user friendly (Wordpress), and the other (Mediawiki) is not. Other complaints:
There is a great difference in business models there. Wordpress and confluence make their money out of third-party applications, WMF makes it money out of donations to keep the Wikipedia going. It would be at best irresponsible to use this money for sole purpose of making the software more useful for 3d parties.. If the 3rd parties are willing to pay a developer or donate money to make MediaWiki more user friendly (like has happened with the usability initiative) that is fine, but do not ask core developers or even volunteers to put any work into this.
Cheers, r.