Agree with this take. But I don't think we should alter the code to spare them the consequences of their decision. The witnesses should all revert back to the version of the blockchain before any of this happened, which will allow Sun and the exchanges to powerdown then transfer/sell their coins. They can't vote witnesses if powered down and can't transfer/sell if powered up. It puts the choice between those 2 things in their hands.

In writing though the witnesses should agree that once they have the ability to hardfork again, the only code change will be turning on the feature already programmed to not allow the Steemit Inc. stake to be used for voting. That way no one has to worry about any of this happening again, at least not among these same parties.