I guess witnesses have the right to drop code if there are enough of them to adopt it

I'm no lawyer, so I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if witnesses in the US could be found to be in violation of cybercrimes laws against digital theft, extortion and/or ransomware. Not only do I hope they have a plan, but for their own sakes, I hope that the ones in the US (and probably EU, too) consulted with attorneys before acting. I unvoted anyone running 0.22.2, but there are a number of witnesses in that list who I (otherwise) think highly of, and I truly hope that this doesn't lead to unintended consequences for them.

if we manage to break the tron deal.. I just don't think I can go backwards to same ole, minus the steemit Inc team

I doubt very much if they scuttled the Tron deal. JS has a big war-chest, and 60 or 70 million reasons to use it. Plus, he's been talking about creating a decentralized Internet for years. This fits perfectly into his strategic vision.

If they can't reach a deal, My guess is that he'll buy enough on the open market to install his own witnesses. (assuming that he doesn't already have enough on the exchanges and in poloniex...) Yeah, it'll drive up the price of Steem, but that's an advantage for him because it also drives up the value of his own holdings (once he recovers them), and then he can resume selling at a controlled pace. I half-wonder if some of the witnesses joined this scheme just so they can sell when the price pumps.