I don't think that themarkymark/buildawhale and blocktrades/darthknight are the same person.

Since its inception, themarkymark's account buildawhale has been delegated by blocktrades.
It is no longer an official bidbot, so guess why it is still delegated by blocktrades.
The witness votes are another hint.
The complete control and regime of terror is another.
The lack of downvotes either way is another.
Also same side during the haejin phony war.
I know it was not so phony for a few of the smaller accounts which got hurt, but they did not belong to either Notestein or haejin, whom might even be Notestein or Ned or berniesanders, whom I wonder if is aware himself that Notestein is behind themarkymark as well.
I think that by now themarkymark's identity is an open secret, whom only his vassals would deny.

It doesn't have any real positive/useful effect to leave even more 'scorched earth' behind while going ahead.

It is the opposite of "scorched earth".
It affects only the perpetrator and benefits the civilians.

I feel more sad than angry, considering the potential of HIVE with its technology and interesting dapps
...

STEEM has quite the same technology and is cleaner from its old cabal than it ever was.
And still, if I had any significant amount of any cryptocurrency that participates with BTC's recent rise, I would have looked to cash out back to FIAT.
Then again, I never thought long what I would have done had I lived under the fourth reich's regime.