The best person is a real producer, not necessarily a creative, but someone who cares deeply about and knows the lore of DC inside and out. Someone that knows how to weave together all the different properties and get the correct people around them to execute on the same. They need a Feige of the DC universe. Gunn is too much of a creative for this role, that is why I don't think it'll work overall.
What made Feige good at his job was he knew and cared deeply for the Marvel lore. The issues recently with the MCU have to do with him being spread too thin with too many projects to juggle, at least in my opinion.
For DC I don't know many people with that deep background that are left anymore, Gunn I don't think has that at all. But maybe someone from the comic side can be his "lieutenant", I haven't heard him tapping anyone yet for that role though. If it was me I would pick someone like Kevin Smith who has a deep background in DC lore and has produced many successful comic runs for DC (and Marvel too actually). And he even wrote the script for the Nicholas Cage Superman Lives film that didn't end up happening (but was featured in The Flash). I know he has talked about being asked by WB in the past to head up the DC film division, so he at least has the respect of the executives. I think he also has at least a good rapport with Gunn, so maybe Gunn could tap him to take up the role.
I think Feige is a rarity on a lot of levels and as you said, he's been spread too thin.
It's hard when a fan takes over a franchise to not give into fannish indulgence, but instead focus on great characters and storytelling with broad appeal. Feige somehow managed this for a very long run.
While I don't think Kathleen Kennedy has been right for Star Wars as a non-creative, I'm wary of what Dave Filoni would indulge himself in (for example) if given free rein.
An example is Alex Kurtzman running Trek TV. While I felt the films were uneven, for the most part I've really enjoyed the TV shows (Picard, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds - the cartoons didn't really hit for me). However, they're TOTALLY self-indulgent. I'm a sucker for Strange New Worlds as Anson Mount is perfection and they're filled with the kind of inside Trek callbacks to the pilot that made me wish we'd also had the Pike years as originally presented. But they're SO fannish they might as well be fan-fic at times. Picard season 3 I loved best of the 3 seasons, but again because it was all so fannish! And yet, besides reunions or callbacks, are we getting anything creatively new out of those? Not really. Even Discovery is just a ripoff of Andromeda, another Roddenberry source material. And they're not expanding the fanbase with these offerings, they're serving it (which, granted, is better than NOT serving anyone at all!).
Both RTD and Steven Moffat had highs and lows throughout their Doctor Who tenures - when they're good, they're really good, but when they're self-indulgent... oh boy. An example - I LOVE Kate Stewart, but that character is just pure fan-fic. As are all the Doctor's romances. Many fans may enjoy them, but are those indulgences growing the franchise outward or turning it further inward?
So the fact that Feige could walk the line to please the fans but also draw in the non-fans was his genius. And I don't know when we'll find the likes of that again for any franchise.
For DC, I think they're still going in too many directions with too many chefs in the multi-kitchen. lol Psychological dramas with Joker (by remaking The King of Comedy
), harkening back to the detective fiction with The Batman (but still feeling re-tready), the forthcoming Superman... I don't have the answer beyond what Marvel needs to do right now, too - tell better stories and stop filming scripts before they're fully baked. Hopefully, Gunn and his team will - the DC characters deserve better than what they've been served lately.
That said, I'd still be fully down for a bat$#!+ crazy R-rated Arkham Asylum run of movies. Maybe as low budget slasher film style? Let James Wan at those if they want to keep him in the fold doing what he does best.
