Those who say the Bitcoin protocol doesn't exist they should also think about decentralized. In as much as there are influence by devs in the Bitcoin core and influences from top men (US president, social influencers like Elon Musk) there is still a limit to how they can influence the technology.
There's more and more evidence--to the point that it's overwhelming now--that consumers simply don't care about "decentralized". Indeed, I suspect most Bitcoin owners these days don't even have the first clue as to what that word even means.
To most Bitcoin buyers today, Bitcoin is this thing you buy on some app, or a security you buy in your brokerage account. There's nothing even remotely "decentralized" about this.
And pretty much only core Bitcoin today is actually decentralized. Most of the rest of the marketplace are centralized blockchain coins like ETH or XRP--and consumers clearly don't care.
And Elon Musk pushes DOGE, not Bitcoin; Trump pushes Trump's coin, not Bitcoin.