GREAT ARTICLE! Thank you so very much for sharing and the in depth analysis of this matter that has been puzzling for many of us...

Originally, the SBD was supposedly pegged to the USD, what happened with that all of a sudden??? As you quickly mention at the beginning of your article:

"In recent weeks something altogether less democratic has happened. The rules for extracting value from the system have suddenly changed without any such due process."

Now that we all know when this change happened, where did it take place, in other words, who instigated it??? Had the SBD been in deed pegged tot eh USD, this draining effect may very well have been averted. To boot, have the right to take the whole of one's investment from their Steem Power in 13 weeks alone makes the spin potentially much faster... Can the platform really survive this movement? ***Unless the instigators of this SBD drainage faucet is benevolent, it may very well the end of our powerful platform. If this is a move by individuals involved within the ecosystem, they may very well be allowing many to reinvest, including themselves, within the ecosystems relating to STEEM thus creating the pump to, later on, reinvest the increased value of the other cryptocurrencies that have now gained much more value because of the shift from SBD to that specific cryptocurrency. By buying back later on, you have flushed away a lot of people who are not into our platform for the long-term, in some ways skim away the people that aren't into our platform for the long-run! ;) I have a tendency to see the positive creative potential of situations and, as I am a realist, I am also aware that this is only one possibility for which all of us here on Steemit would gain...

Thanks again for an excellent quality post, it was thick and chunky and I LOVED it!

Namaste :)