> The vast majority of the bitcoin community has been trying to do just that.

Thats a common claim made on easily sockpuppeted forums, but when put to cryptographic votes, we find pretty much the opposite response: http://bitcoinocracy.com/arguments/if-non-core-hard-fork-win...

Similarly, I've found in person meetings to also yield similar results.

> But a few devs

Really, almost the _entire_ technical community; with the exception of a few high profile companies and their consultants.

> have unilaterally been able to block the changes

That isn't how Bitcoin works.