Hey @sct, @proxy.token team.
It seems you already moved in a direction with the new tron imposed witnesses without giving time to chat to the old community selected witnesses.

To clarify to you the situation a bit further, we are at a stance that could make or break the steem blockchain. There are clearly malicious actions taking place from tron side to overtake the steem blockchain which started in coordination with exchanges as well, with the real intent is to simply move steemit as a dapp to tron and without any real plans for steem as a blockchain. This jeopardizes the existance of the blockchain itself.
This is why our community and witnesses and pushing to ensure the blockchain is controlled by the community, not a single entity imposing tron's intentions, which is at the core of how decentralized systems are intended to function.
In terms of your questions, and while we cannot respond on behalf of the community or the witnesses, yet we can at least confirn our vision altogether to grow and improve the blockchain in itself, including SMTs(smart contracts) and creating further growth roadmaps.
The time now is to work on ensuring the survival of steem blockchain and creating a better community-induced growth to it.
In the worst case, and should you still believe that the whole community stands differently than the way you perceive things, and as we believe you would intend for the whole ecosystem to grow, and if you sense you are undecided as to how to proceed, i would suggest removing your current votes so as not to tilt the balance to any side.