I do remember in its original configuration, the power-down period was two years, and I never had an issue with that. It's like a pension plan; it takes a while to become fully vested.

The argument, of course, is that it discourages investment. Which isn't exactly true... what's true is that it favors content creation over massaging numbers with automated gimmickry.

Whatever people may say, most actually don't want to be part of a Meritocracy... where the best contributions and the hardest workers are are also the most rewarded.

It's ironic, really. One of my earliest "requests" to the developers was to work on a peer-to-peer marketplace for goods and services based around Steem/SBD... in order to add value to the tokens by presenting a broadly appealing use case, given that we know people dig things like eBay and Craigslist. Alas, the suggestion was pretty much cold-shouldered...