Günther Schmidt
Basically that is my question: If there is someone at the top who has an eye on this.
There isn't. (Just like there isn't one in most situations, it's all complex networks of interactions and nobody really in control. Get used to it.)
That essential libraries come about.
What does "essential" mean? Something a hypothetical dictator wants, but nobody else? For surely, if your email library was so essential, it'd be included among the hundreds of libraries on Hackage? Perhaps it is a lot less important than you think? (None of my programs need to send email, so it's certainly not essential to me.) Or perhaps sufficient functionality is in the libraries suggested by Michael, and you just didn't find it when you looked?
I am aware that Haskell is a project without industry backing
This isn't exactly true, GHC is developed with support from Microsoft.
so some things will have to happen a lot slower.
This isn't exactly true either, productivity seems only weakly correlated to funding - at least, it is my experience that many of the most productive people are programming as a hobby.
I'm just wondering if there is someone who steers Haskell in that direction.
No. -k -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants