When was the last time you have submitted a patch to say PowerShell?
Democratic process does not exist when everyone is free to start a project. Users also often do not know what they want either until it's shown to them. Surprisingly also true when it's a tool made for other developers.
What you seem to be suggesting is to replace open source model with grant academia model if I'm being generous, and that would kill it. If I were less generous, you're suggesting to have say Microsoft tell OpenSSL devs what they want of them and do it.