If somebody tried to buy that much stake on the market the bots would catch it and the price would explode.
If they did buy it on the market does that give them the absolute right to nullify everybody else's investment, just because they can?
Sounds like a 51% attack on pow.

It's as if running a bid bot was excusable because everybody' else was doing it.
No.
Destroying the chain because you can is not classy!

The witnesses moved to protect the code.
Reacting to a hostile takeover after the fact would have ended this experiment, IMO, and was probably high on Ned's wish list.

This is the best place I have seen the chain in since I got here.

We weren't in a position to fork Ned out when he forced linear rewards on us, but now we are ready to stand as a community.

Herding cats is hard.
Maybe Justin can do it, maybe not.
Either way, I'm pretty sure steem steems on.
And that is a good thing, to me.