How else will a core developer let it be known that this feature/issue won't be fixed? The "wontfix" tag/state is there for this very reason. And the core devel

How else will a core developer let it be known that this feature/issue won't be fixed? The "wontfix" tag/state is there for this very reason. And the core developers are there for this very reason -- to make decisions. I'm curious though. Why not just fork the project and be more open in terms of getting patches in?