These exchanges are now pleading for a hard fork on Steem to lower the power down from 13 weeks to just a day or two so they can free those tokens for their customers.

They're better off powering down now and waiting. This stalemate could take much longer than 13 weeks. It's also far cheaper to simply powerdown now and wait 13 weeks.

I'm quite impressed with this community as well. It's not perfect but at least it dresses up for special occasions.