I'm currently undecided as to the importance of this announcement but at the same time I don't understand where all the hate comes from. People who don't want to participate don't have to participate. What's the big deal? Maybe the people who are protesting the "centralization" in an apparent knee-jerk fashion don't understand how easy it is to fork a git repository.
I don't know why, but you can call me a "classic libertarian". I always complain when I see anonymity or decentralization of the bitcoin network in danger. The same way I complain when MtGox uses his monopolistic possition in the market and freezes people accounts by orders of a hidden tainted bitcoin list. The same way I complain when pools get too much mining power.