Thanks for including me in your post. In the last part you mention about what witnesses do with their rewards and it is something I have thought about a lot.
Because witness rewards are paid in steem power it is very easy for witnesses to just pocket the power and carry on.
What I am doing myself and I urge other witnesses to do is once my node is earning rewards I will be reporting exactly what I power down and what that amount gets used on via monthly or bi monthly reports. To show full transparency.
I agree it is very political :) I genuinely feel like I am on a campaign to promote the adamm party!