I admired the initial (calm and well-thought) reactions from the community, including the SF. The more I'm now shocked by this severe step that @justinsunsteemit and the exchanges have taken. The backlash is already big, but will grow much bigger with more time.

Blockchains, as much as token holders like to think that, don't belong to token holders. They are owned by the people running and using it. Should there be a HF with no Steemit stake, any user could decide by themselves which one they prefer. I believe there would be a ton of users supporting this. Not suggesting that to happen, though, there are still other ways to save Steem.