seeing as you admire the word "state" to refer to certain group of elitist authoritarians. i shall refer to certain dv team as "dev state" for your benefit
In the context of this topic. Does the "dev-state" monopolize the printing, and issuance of the currency in the network? Does it have a police system to administer their "laws"? Does it threaten our freedom?
The developers clearly don't have power or authority over anything.
That's why Segwit wasn't activated for so long -- they had no mandate to force anyone to upgrade. BIP148 and BIP91 were not part of the Core implementation. If users or miners chose to run them or comply with their rules, it had nothing to do with Core.
Miners made a simple, calculated decision. They could have forced the question and split the chain, but they figured it was more profitable to go the path of least resistance.