Well I don't understand those power up days. I do believe that is always the first of the month. The ones who does this are just missing out on free Hive. They save up all their liquid Hive until the first of the month and then power up.
I power up when I do have enough liquid hive to power up. This helps growing my account faster, has an immediate impact on my VP and interest. If I would live it as liquid Hive, it just stays liquid Hive.

But we are on different sides in the Hive universe. If I do power up, it wouldn't be even start a ripple in the ocean. For the big stakeholders it could cause a real wave, in some effect even a tsunami. No problems with that. Because like you write, the more HP the bigger the responsability for most, for sure in the minds of the plakton.
While I don't have a big stake in Hive, I do feel and act like a hive whale, trying to protect Hive and try to add value to the chain.

Cheers,
Peter