User blog comment:Rappy 4187/Technical Update: January 11, 2016/@comment-30384903-20160112165533/@comment-24473195-20160112211515

"Why do the code pages need to be in the MediaWiki namespace anyway? It just means that anyone who wants to create a script on Dev Wiki needs code editor and they automatically gain the ability to edit all the MediaWiki namespace pages there, which is essentially a major security issue. No idea why Wikia can't just customise Dev Wiki so that the mainspace isn't like your average mainspace."

While I do agree that another namespace would be preferable, there is 0 added security risk because even dev.wikia admins can't randomly add code. They also go through the same review as all other wikias. Although, Wikia staff is taking a shortcut possibly because they likely don't want to review hundreds of scripts. So many of them were pre-approved, and many of their security issues were carried over.

Considering that the WMF has the same problem and is currently working with a similar but superior solution, they could help the WMF clean up and deploy mw:Extension:Gadgets 2.0, and add the applicable customizations to wikia wherever they are needed. Although the WMF's bureaucracy can be annoying so one alternative might be forking the gadgets code.