Do you guys see a possibility (even a small one) that core developers got corrupted by the banking lobby or some other party that wants Bitcoin to fail? I'm thinking millions of dollars or tens of millions. Maybe some of them were bought to stick around but hinder progress and slow development. Others were paid to do just what he did right now.
I know what open source means, I'm a developer / IT guy myself. Others can take over. But the current core devs voices are heard and they can slow things down while "acting normal".
I see the possibility that some programmers don't understand economics or business as well as they probably should when they are managing a crypto currency. There isn't really any need for conspiracy theories on either side. The Blockstream deal has some problematic conflict of interest issues, but I can very well believe that Gmaxwell, Adam and Pieter thinks their current course is genuinely the best for Bitcoin, and I have no doubt that Mike Hearn, Gavin and Jeff are worried about restricting the block size. LN, segwit, IBLT and other clever stuff is all nice and dandy, but they are not ready. And most of these improvements will take time to have an effect even when they're released. So, in the meantime Bitcoin can't grow. That's bad for businesses relying on it, and bad for the price and anyone holding this asset.