The thing Satoshi probably would have done, if he hadn't been frightened into the shadows, is integrate a voting mechanism into the client. The bitcoin collective would then steer and shape the currency. I think something like this is in the works now, so Bitcoin should be just fine.
Hey man, I think your on to something... color the fee coins so that only the miner the spender selects can claim the fee. Make mining some type of proof-of-share, the miner with the most colored shares of fees gets awarded the next block...Lots of holes in it... but kinda a shadow of an idea in there somewhere.
One method might also be integrating a Reddit like platform and adding a new "Community Menu." The client window would display a totally self-contained forum where users/developers/merchants could offer ideas and suggestions.
Then, anytime an idea gets upvoted to the top (replacing the previous highest upvote) it would be automatically implemented by the core team which is made up of chosen and elected persons using the same upvoting process. Until something replaces the highest upvote, nothing changes.
Lots of holes in it... but kinda a shadow of an idea in there somewhere.
the problem with this sort of voting system is that it's open to abuse. someone with 100 clients could simply spam-vote their own ideas to get them implemented. not a bad idea though if it worked properly.