Thank you for this post, Asher. This almost perfectly sums up my own experience with the AMA-that-wasn't and my feelings after the community chat.

The last time I saw this much engagement and energy from the Steem community was at SF3 in Krakow. Since then, conditions with the platform went into decline and, while I didn't leave, I withdrew to focus on building my own real-world project that might or might not eventually include the Steem blockchain. This development makes me very glad that my team didn't invest more in a front end specific to Steem, but also gives me a tiny glimmer of hope that something good may come from this after all, even if it's a rallying force to keep the spirit of Steem alive in the face of what could be our greatest adversity ever...or our greatest leg up to mainstream adoption. Time will tell.