In fact Bitcoin Core is running the Bitcoin economy, and its developers do have the authority to set its rules. This is enforced by the reality of ~100% market share and limited github commit access.

You may not like this situation, but it is what it is. By refusing to make a release with different rules, people who disagree are faced with only two options:

1. Swallow it even if they hate it

2. Fork the project and fork the block chain with it (XT)

There are no alternatives. People who object to (2) are inherently suggesting (1) is the only acceptable path, which not surprisingly, makes a lot of people very angry.