They think (or at least put forth the theory) that the small block size will allow enough nodes to operate that the government cannot influence BTC because they can't reach and coerce enough nodes. They are wrong for a simple reason - economies of scale. Nodes (ones that count, the miners, that is) can decrease their per hash cost by scaling, so we end up with large miners that can be coerced by governments regardless of the blocksize limit or not
They think (or at least put forth the theory) that the small block size will allow enough nodes to operate that the government cannot influence BTC because they can't reach and coerce enough nodes. They are wrong for a simple reason - economies of scale. Nodes (ones that count, the miners, that is) can decrease their per hash cost by scaling, so we end up with large miners that can be coerced by governments regardless of the blocksize limit or not