You nailed it. I had to chuckle when reading this.

The real value of the Steem blockchain is in the community, the people, their content and their relationships.

The community is rock solid. When Sun bought the ninja mined stake, the possibility of the other stakeholders coming together and wresting control back from him was considered impossible by some users. I was told it was impossible by "realists". It turns out they were wrong. The only thing that tipped the scales in Sun's favor were the exchanges.

I imagine if a sister chain were created, that chain could get listed on some exchanges without difficulty. The price might take a hit but that would be temporary. The nuclear option of forking out the stakes of Poloniex, Binance and Huobi would serve the new chain well. Notably, Bittrex, Upbit and all the other trustworthy exchanges would of course keep their tokens. The original chain would remain a dictatorship run by Sun and it would most likely be abandoned.

At last, the ninja mined stake would be gone. Steemit's engineers could be hired to finish testing SMTs through SPS. It might take a while but otherwise all the pieces are in place. OpenSeed will be finished no matter what. Steem would finally fulfill its original vision.

I would continue creating content out of a simple desire to make the thing work. Sun and his corporatism are a cancer that should have no place in this space.