The other ones who mined at the beginning never made any claims other than they had mined Steem and it was their stake.

That seems rather convenient. How is one person's secret stash of "free" steem any better than another?

Non-binding "agreements" or "reassurances" =/= forfeiture of voting rights

I'll bet that if JSUN bought-up a ton of stake from other random accounts, "the community" would be begging NED to vote against JSUN (to "save the community").