The Bitcoin ledger is a single global truth. Mutually untrusting nodes agree on this one truth, with no central authority to call the shots or enforce rules.
and yet a central group did become an authority in 2017 by dictating a bip91 lag that would mandate a split to ensure that those loyal to the group enforced a new ruleset.
What group? “Core”? I believe the Core developers were neutral until the very last minute when some of them joined the grassroots movement who wanted the UASF. It was a mutual consensus between different indivuduals/parties/groups.
Like Taproot, Core is neutral, but needs an aggressive call for LOT=true by the grasroots. Then Core can ignore, or join.