@aggroed, the question I keep coming back to — and which sits at the root of much of this entire circus — is that of whether or not Justin Sun was even aware that he was purchasing "encumbered" property (be that explicit or implicit) in the sense of whether Ned even made mention of the fact that the ninja mined Steem was "supposed to" be used for future development and marketing.
"Due diligence" notwithstanding, it's a bit like a developer buying a prime piece of real estate that is technically without liens, not knowing that the land is very likely the habitat for an endangered species which would effectively block the developer's ability to build his shopping mall or housing development. "Caveat Emptor" and all that good stuff, but even high level transactions are often riddled with ambiguities...
Was Ned just so hot-to-trot to "exit stage left" that he conveniently "forgot" to mention this small detail about the intended use of the ninja mined stake? Whereas it doesn't materially alter the current situation, if Justin was substantially deceived about the nature of his acquisition it would go quite a long way towards explaining why he is playing his hand the way he is.
Keep in mind that I don't know the technical/logistical aspects of this, but could it be that a possible way forward is that a formal agreement is drafted and published that as of some pre-determined time and date, ALL witnesses — Justin's AND ours — agree to reset/update their witnesses to perhaps a ver. 22.6 that essentially mirrors the code that was running PRE 22.2, 22.444, 22.3 and 22.5? No changed powerdown time, no blocked stake, just "old" Steem.
Risky? Sure... but make the whole thing EXCEPTIONALLY PUBLIC so that IF anyone was to renege, the effect would be that they were standing up in the middle of town square saying "Yes, I'm an untrustworthy cheat and scammer." The possibility of publicly losing face with the entire world watching can be a very strong deterrent.
Perhaps negotiations can start towards creating an entirely new account called something like "Steem Development Fund" that can FORMALLY be declared and mutually agreed to as holding all/some of the ninja mined Steem, not just as a "vague promise" but as part of the Steem(it)'s formal structure... and that account be subject to special rules/exceptions written into the code. AND, could additionally be used/encouraged as an active "beneficiary account" for the greater community to support, KNOWING that the "donations" they send that way are formally earmarked for specific purposes.