Thanks for your opinion on this.

I agree on several on your points but I see a few things differently:

1: Regarding to the softfork in secret:

• Yes, the Witnesses changing to the softfork to "lock" Justins stake was decided "in secret".
• However, they did publish their statements afterwards and the community had the option to decide voting them out. Instead, the community voted out the witnesses that were against this step. This way, the decision was approved by the majority of the active stake.
• In this context it is important to state that if they had announced a public discussion on this topic before applying the softfork, Justin could've found ways to avoid this softfork. That's why it was important to be handled in secret before applying it.
• However, I do agree with some community members that this could've been restricted to "decline witness vote".

2: The reason for this softfork for me were way above the ninjamined stake.

• Since Justin Sun announced the takeover, he published a lot of contrary information on this topic which made it strongly seem like a hostile takeover.
  While he stated on one hand that the token-swap is canceled on the other hand he continued publishing tweets regarding this.
• Thus, either he is incompetent or these were actually calculated.
• Thus, it was the witnesses obligation to avoid a potential 51% attack against the integrity of the chain. Not only for the sake of Steem but for the sake of DPoS in general.

3: Ninjamine stake

• The opinions surrounding this stake differ strongly. While there is no "hard contract" on this. It was always fairly obvious for everyone that this stake is for the sake of development of the Steem chain. Due to the continuous failings of Steemit Inc prior to the election of the new leadership there were numerous discussions already about this stake and if it is being used accordingly.
• I don't think there is an easy answer regarding this.

4: Fork out anyone

• While it is theoretically possible to freeze anyones stake like this, this is possible in any DPoS chain. The only way to avoid this is if the community votes out someone. Thus, I am 100% sure that none of the current witnesses would apply such a softfork on any user BUT steemit inc.

5: Path to the future

I don't see a clear path to the future either. I was happy for the development of the chain in the last year (MIRA, SPS, economic changes, SMTs in beta testing) but due to the altcoin bear market the price did not reflect this.

I'd like to see the current team continue what they were working in because I believe that this is a good path for the future.

Thus, whatever happens I believe that funding the developers that left Steemit Inc through the SPS is definitely the best case scenario.