Being able to review the code yourself is helpful, and being able to contribute to the code yourself is even better. It may not be perfect, but it's certainly a step up from bankers setting policy in their ivory towers, in my opinion. Changes to the bitcoin source code, as a rule, only happen when the development community has reached a reasonable consensus after public discussion. Then it's left to miners to implement this "policy" by running the software that developers release.
Granted, not all bitcoin clients are run in this fashion, but you mention the core developers, who are held accountable to the community by their reputations. There's something greatly liberating about being able to talk to the policy setters on IRC and have them treat you like any other person, rather than part of the rabble.