You can use different Bitcoin client, so far Bitcoin-qt is fair and dont misuse the checkpoints
It is not just change of button color or font size, it is
protocol specification change.
If one fork has checkpoints and other does not - then they do not have consensus on how to select main blockchain, and this could lead to blockchain fork (at least theoretically).
Bitcoin already has consensus mechanism, and it is the foundation - block-chain with bigger combined work amount is the winner, period.
There is not other block-chain with bigger combined work amount, so checkpoints in Bitcoin-qt are the correct ones