I have been seeing some claims that "Bitcoin Knots is part of the Bitcoin Core project", that "Bitcoin Knots is just another release of Bitcoin Core", and that "Bitcoin Knots has more contributors than Bitcoin Core".

Bitcoin Core has about 40 regular contributors with over a thousand past contributors. The Bitcoin Core project releases its software on bitcoincore.org. Bitcoin Core releases are signed by several Bitcoin Core contributors and other community members. Releases are attested to by this community.

Bitcoin Core’s source code is released under the MIT License. The MIT License is a permissive open-source license permitting anyone to do almost anything with the licensed code.

Bitcoin Knots is a project fork of Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin Knots appears to be developed by a single developer pushing directly to master without peer review. Bitcoin Knots releases are composed of Bitcoin Core’s source code modified with a patch set of about 1400 commits. The same individual unilaterally issues releases. There is no indication that anyone else has ever contributed code or review directly to Bitcoin Knots. Bitcoin Knots is not endorsed by the Bitcoin Core project.

Claims to the contrary appear to be based on a unique individual perception of reality.