I think the point is that the consensus witnesses never had the popular vote, only the high stakes votes of a few.

You can't count the current votes for this situation, because they aren't voting for anyone, just against Justin.

As for more or less decentralized, that's simply playing semantics. It's either decentralized or it's not and it never has been, because of how the current voting system works.

This needs to change for Steem to move forward in a positive direction.