Well said. Also, the value of our token is intimately wrapped up in the other value propositions of the chain including social capabilities, application-related capabilities, and upgrade-ability. And of course far more time and effort is put into ensuring that the code around the token is more secure and robust due to its importance. That's exactly what caused the halt. When the blockchain sensed a threat to the token, it halted so as to not endanger that component of the system.

I was discussing the halting incident with a friend recently and he noted that banks and stock exchanges stop functioning for 12 hours every day and people tolerate it. A couple of halting incidents in exchange for all the other benefits of Steem is a relatively tiny price to pay and shouldn't be used, IMO, to justify turning Steem into something stagnant.