They are fixing it... it's just happening at committee speeds.

I would really like to be able to specify what prelude I want at the .cabal file. AFAIK, that's one change that wouldn't break anything.

(Anyway, Haskell is one case of a language asking for a fork. Maybe it takes the form of Idris or some other derived language having some sudden growth instead, but you are right, the committee currently isn't as fast as the community.)