No, Bitcoin development processes and ecosystem does not reliant upon hit creators or initiators. Supposing Satoshi identification know, no anyone can do anything with Bitcoin unless the community itself that gathers a consensus. In another hand, For Satoshi themselves, it might pose a threat or risk, whatever it is.
Bitcoin was built and designed to prevent a centralized entity from easily and effectively controlling its networks, not even Satoshi can do anything directly. Bitcoin communities are also strong enough not to be easily affected by any external factor that might harm Bitcoin.
Of course it does. Satoshi creates it so he is also the one that can destroy it. In other projects, they are dying because they are not being updated anymore. There are some who have been updated but it only messes up the project which results later on for the project to die.
Other people can't do anything with Bitcoin because it's not theirs and they don't know some things as Satoshi did. Maybe Satoshi is scared and what if his thoughts are true that someone will attack him if he showed up? That could be the reason why he hid himself from the public. The hunt for Satoshi is not new and up until now they still can't identify the guy so there is no need to worry about this matter.