The witnesses are puppets, either vote with stinc or get voted out?

STINC doesn’t actually vote for witnesses anymore. But they did create and perpetuate the culture of cheerleading and shunning anyone who offers criticism, whether legitimate/pointed or not.

I’m sure this won’t exactly come as a shock to you, but...

Most of the witnesses are worthless. They don’t/can’t review code. They don’t run their own nodes. They don’t know how or why to set parameters. They just do what other witnesses do. So, when it comes time for big decisions and who to support, they just defer that responsibility to those that they perceive as “leaders” around here.

And we all know what that “leadership” is and how valuable/worthless it is.