For an open source decentralized protocol it does seem like control over the "official" codebase is very centralized.

A contentious hard fork would be very damaging to the mission I think Bitcoin is for, which is to destroy fiat.

I think Bitcoin is in a good place to do that with its current functionality. There's no reason to push for significant changes to the protocol until it's more clear that it's needed for Bitcoin to continue to grow, and there should be broad agreement on those changes.