I can't believe how anyone can suggest without a hint of irony or sarcasm that you have to contribute to a specific open source project in order to have an opinion about Bitcoin.

This is simultaneously elitist and mind-bogglingly stupid.

It's correct that Bitcoin Core is an important part of the Bitcoin technology stack, but it isn't the only client available, which is a good thing.

Being able to understand the code of Bitcoin Core gives you the ability to do exactly one thing: understand the code of Bitcoin Core. It says absolutely nothing about your ability to understand the implications of changes to the system, of what users want, or the purpose of Bitcoin itself, for that matter.

Bitcoin Core developers are developing a product, and their customers are the users of the Bitcoin network. The Core developers don't get to dictate what the users are supposed to think. It's entirely the other way around. If the users don't like something Core plans to do, Core shouldn't make the change.

Core ignored its users, so now they're getting fired, by users switching to an alternate client.