I'm just going to chip in here. As you mentioned @ssjsasha the original powerdown was 104 weeks.

The thinking behind it is that it works as a delegated proof of stake. In other words, other investors gain confidence knowing that Steem cannot be dumped uber quickly.

Don't forget that Steemit arose right in the midst of the pump-n-dump ICOs. Investors come in, buy up loads of ICO coins. Devs and their friends dump coins and leave all the new investors (bag holders) high and dry.

So 104 weeks was considered a great way to show investors that this wouldn't happen with Steem.

It was later forked to 13 weeks, along with other changes to SP that gave holders of less than 100,000 SP a vote that would register over $0.01.

Imagine if you could just take out all your Steem at once. Can you imagine what the price would be doing right now?

13 weeks is not a prison. You go into it with your eyes wide open and it is not that long. Obviously it leaves you vulnerable to downward price fluctuations. However I think they'd be far greater if everyone was trying to take their money out all at once.

having to buy bitcoin, dogecoin, lightcoin or dash first then invest that coin into Steem is another. Looks exceptionally shady to not be able to directly invest.

That is neither shady nor unique. There are plenty of legit coins that you can only buy with other crypto. In fact most of them fall under this category, and it is very much the decision of the exchange where the Steem is held.

Ho hum, anyway, I agree with the both of you that HF20 was a disaster. Plus not being able to sell was particularly annoying. Hopefully in another few days it will be like nothing ever happened. 🤞😉

Cg