The idea of the softfork itself was too clever for the witnesses to come up with on their own

You're wrong on this point and wrong on almost everything else in the post too.

The soft fork was developed first by witnesses. I won't comment on any possible input that might have come from any former Steemit devs, except to say that there was categorically no such input as part of the conception nor initial implementation of the soft fork.

For that matter, the concept and method was discussed by witnesses as a possible remedy for Ned's horrific mismanagement (perhaps an overly favorable characterization, but all the facts are not out I guess) of the ninja-mined stake dedicated to development of the ecosystem over a year ago. No Steemit devs had anything to do with that either.

You're entitled your own set of views, but not your own set of facts.