I think you're poorly informed.
There is no backend to steem-engine for any transaction that's independent from the steem smart contract node. None... Literally everything that happens is on the block. That includes the smart contracts that were written.
Smart contracts are not stored in a database by use for the node other than on the steem blockchain. steem-engine.rocks may have them, but that doens't make them stored theer as far as the site is concerned. We don't own it.
Yes, contracts can be edited, but you could also lock which edit is tolerable to you so that your contract could never update. Not sure that's wise, but it could conceivably be your prerogative. We give notice of changes to contracts we have set. People can make financial decisions based on that.
If you and others don't think we decentralized enough you can either be patient as we expand out of our infancy, or you can create your own more perfect thing and have fun there.
Anyway, I think you're wrong, I don't think I'm misleading anyone. If people agree with you the answer is to not use steem-engine. It's voluntary. If people agree with me they should use it. No one is forcing anything here.
Wouldn't tendermint with lotionjs do the job? Honestly, I believe Tendermint is a step up from Steem's current consensus system and I'd like to see it switch over.
Also, is it going to ever be possible on Steem Engine for SE tokens to have inflationary rewards that do not require a bot with active key access? This centralized feature is the main reason why I wait for SMTs over coughing up the 3000 ENG.