You say, core devs are "either corrupt, compromised or stupid". Option 1 and 2 are equal, aren't they? I'm pretty sure they are not plain stupid. With just the high level view you are taking, how about ignorant or detached regarding social dynamics?

I don't mind increasing the default to 100k or allowing multiple op_returns but datacarriersize working in clearly unintuitive ways with no way (?) to enforce the old default op_return limit feels off.