In order to be a witness you have to invest in computing hardware and internet bandwidth.

IMHO anyone who does so to aid the steem blockchain is worthy of having their name put on the list.

The top 50 is either... the developer was just looking at normal sorting web pages, or they were evilly trying to keep anyone from climbing in the ranks.

Anyway, the list should include everyone who runs a witness.
Even if the programmers have to bend over backwards to get it done.
It needs to be done.

(Do you have the ear of any developer, whom, if given the code, would implement the fix?)