A proof-of-burn would be a great idea if they had some other way of generating revenue to run their infrastructure.
For that matter, why not compete with Steem Monsters in the same way? Want booster packs of the Steem Monsters clone? Burn your SBD.
There's nothing stopping anyone from launching their own Steem Engine clone that uses proof-of-burn. Competition makes everything better.
Update: I still stand behind what I said above, but your "red flag" actually seems to have some relevance. I just ran across this: "The fees collected by this system will probably be burnt. (but I'll make a separate post to talk about that once it's ready)"
That post was from before we were working with harpagon on the steem engine project. Nevertheless, it is currently the case that the ENG spent as fees to create tokens are burned.
The fact that we are selling the ENG as our initial distribution method is no different than any project that initially sells their tokens as a way to fund development.
I agree. I guess I just don't understand the objection.