You have said it all.
I saw most of my african users promote specific witness and when I asked them why, they gave me no tangible response and this is misleading because even newbies now thinks it is a criteria to succeed on steemit.

Witness vote should be by choice not by force and it shouldn't be monopolized too.
Thanks for bringing it up @steemchiller.
I hope people make changes accordingly and do the right thing.