I don't expect @ned is going to change his mind on the powering down. Just my opinion. Although it is somewhat comforting to see support for Steemit Inc to stop the power down.

Yes, the current situation can make STEEM more affordable. The price can be turned around though and the reward pool can be improved indirectly through price.

It is all relative to the price of STEEM. The ecosystem and individual rewards can improve if STEEM and SBD are listed on more exchanges which drives trading volume and then drives price. The recent STEEM pump is due to the news that Bithumb reinstating deposits and withdrawals. It is almost equivalent to the exchange listing STEEM for the first time. That is the power of listing STEEM on exchanges.

Since Steemit Inc is doing such a horrific job getting STEEM listed on many exchanges, the task needs to be accomplished by someone else. I have built an incentive for witnesses to execute this task. I have a large group of people willing to cast a witness vote for the witness that accomplishes this goal. We now have reached the threshold of an equivalent whale witness vote to incentivize witnesses to go out and accomplish this task.

We are in an interesting position now. Since Steemit Inc has done such a poor job getting STEEM and SBD listed everywhere, we now have enormous options to get STEEM and SBD listed. There is a large selection of exchanges to choose from. The listing fees are also discounted. When the price of the entire market soars, listing fees are going to be sky high. Now is the time to jump on this opportunity.

I would like more participation in the form of people to volunteer one witness vote to a highly motivated witness that accomplishes the challenge of getting STEEM or SBD listed on a major exchange.
https://steemit.com/witness/@socky/witness-bounty-we-now-have-an-equivalent-whale-vote