But the biggest pain is knowing that part of the community will be lost in between this tug-of-war and the steem community will not be what it once was, in hive or anywhere.

I completely agree. It really hurts to know that what we had - how malfunctioning it was - will be gone.

Some friends I have here since the beginning are not moving, which makes it very hard for me to make a decision for myself, tbh