My first thoughts on this is that longer waiting time often equals more stress and/or anxiety no matter what it is about... There are probably a bunch of pros and cons to something like this, but I would say that users would benefit more by having a shorter powerdown period.
I am not sure about Steem in general though, if it would be a positive or negative thing in the long haul. Short term, I'd say that people would be more likely to invest. Especially as this is crypto, when ups- and downs is a regular thing.