A lost wallet is accidentally left there. The context of it being available to be taken by anyone is not intended. There is no declaration of rules by which you may take it by the owner.
You can't just expect people not to take free money laying out on a park bench with their name on it...
The debate being had is whether the sign was sufficiently well written ("It's the code's fault") vs. whether the sign system is just a terrible idea regardless of sign quality and you should use normal societal systems to transfer the wallet.
• As a device to programmatically ensure the “owner” of some resource is the one who controls it; or
• As a system that decides who controls a resource, whomsoever controls the resource has a right to it, there can only be one.
The sensible interpretation (imo) is the first one, unless we're doing away with our conception of property rights. (Which would be an interesting experiment, but given the philosophical background of a lot of this cryptocurrency stuff I don't think that's what's intended.)
Blockchain are just databases. But they still run due to consensus and the consensus is made up by humans and it is humans who uphold it.
For example, humans came to a consensus that there will there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. However, we cannot guarantee that one day there may be more than 21. They also came to a consensus that that this shall never change. However, all that is protecting this consensus is a meme. The source code can be changed should everyone agree, especially if the future humans find that such a cap does not work.
The benefits of decentralization is that the consensus is hard to change by individuals or centralized organisations... Consensus must be reached by all of the participants of the network.
From a moral standpoint, it's like, if you accidentally leave behind your wallet with cash on a park bench with a lot of passer-by, then it's your fault for leaving it there and whoever finds it deserves to keep it. I'm sure you're familiar with the "finders keepers, losers weepers" saying... After all, it's in public, similar to how public blockchains work, right?
However, different people may come to different conclusions about this. In some countries in the world, the overwhelming consensus would be to return the wallet to the owner, even if it's found in public. I guess it's because it doesn't matter if you had to break through the window, or simply reach out and grab it from the bench; the property does not belong to you.