Exactly, you summarized it perfectly... if only 1 whale decides to not participate then the solution could not be implemented. It might be extremely difficult for all of them to sit down and agree on this, its not secret that they are not all friends, but I'm not ready to say it can't be done.
Even in politics sometimes our opposing parties manage to pass the almost unicornian bipartisan bills, with the obvious intention of helping the country. I would like to believe that we can do the same with Steemit.
Thank you for adding your two cents, I feel like this post has become a little repository for collective wisdom. cheers @meno