I really think that by not including composer (or something similar) is what is going to hold CodeIgnitor back. It allows us developers to easily add in additional libraries to expand functionality and to easily upgrade (much better than uploading over existing files and praying for the best).
Being able to use 3rd party libraries such as Doctrine, SwiftMailer, Monolog and other tested packages will keep those behind CI from having to reinvent the wheel and focus on other areas of the framework.
To overcome the need for ssh, simply have a downloadable package that already includes all vendor packages (like many other frameworks offer). This will also go along with CI's goal of simply downloading a zip and being able to run out of the box for those that are unable to run terminal or are new and afraid of composer.
