Social consensus should _always_ override rule of law. Society is not formed around people's relationship with the law, it's based on people's relationship with each other. The hard fork required social consensus to trump rule of law, and they got it.

"but what about eth classic?"

The ETC chain exists, yes, however it is not "Ethereum". There's a timeline where the majority was against the fork, and ETC would have remained "Ethereum", with the forked chain taking on a new name like Ethereum Cash or something.