Sort:  

Steemit has enough stake to unilaterally choose the witnesses themselves if they decided to use it.

Which sort of makes pointless the whole concept that

Steemit, Inc. started powering down their accounts in reaction to a perceived threat of a hardfork

An alternative would be for them to vote to replace witnesses, which while I can't speak for them, is something I believe they would prefer to avoid doing

Using their stakes in such manmer would simply signal the end of the entire steem Blockchain .

As it is, the steemit team need to comply .otherwise witnessesay as well start packing their bags and moving to other blockchains.

Users will become distressed as well and start powering down more.