Hm no. I think the community driven ideas came most vocally from Amir, and were also carried and ultimately implemented by laanwj.

To me it went from:

Satoshi owning it -> Gavin ruling it like a king -> laanwj eradicating all centralized leadership. The community drive without gatekeepers is only possible since the lead maintainer stepped down after a long process of making sure no leader is needed.