Bitcoin aligns incentives. It's in the interest of those with lots of bitcoin to have everyone else use the same fork, so their coins have value. This discourages bad behaviour from whales.

Let's not forget that bitcoin's monetary policy is fixed. Everyone earns coins the same way as everyone else: by mining or buying. No printing of new money for example. Central banks are far bigger whales than bitcoin's given their ability to print new money on a whim.