I struggled with any central maintainers, when satoshi left, he said he had left it in good hands (gavin)

and still i get that nodes can run whichever version of software they please but it looks to me like whether it's core or Knots, it depends on how the noderunners are influenced by influential characters online persuading their opinion,

if Bitcoin was ossified then my worries would be quelled but future issues like quantum may pose a problem