"who are we the most interested in owning and having the benefits of Hive tokens."
Stakeholders. Stakeholders of all shapes and sizes who have all criticized the long lockup period at one time or another.
"They need 30 days to be a part in governance. But a powerdown which is shorter than the actual time it takes to have governance impact?"
The 30-day delay on governance voting was meant as a protection against instant massive power-ups that could put network security at risk via centralized control. It really had nothing to do with economics.
There's no reason to assume that a shorter unstaking period should or would have any impact on the governance/security side. PoS chains with better staking incentives and shorter unstaking times isn't some novel concept. Plenty of them exist, like Cosmos, Tezos, Near, Waves, Lisk, THORchain...even EOS and Cardano. I think the longest lockup for any of those is only a few weeks.
Long unstaking time is one of the most complained about aspects of the tokenomics of this chain and it's one of the least addressed. It was changed in December of 2016 and hasn't been revisited. It's long overdue. (As are several other changes that we need.)
Appreciate sharing your thoughts on the questions.