I agree on the fear part of this. The bottom line is that Bernie has made his money and doesn't care if his account gets run through the wringer on Steem. I am sure he has diversified his investments enough that even if STEEM closed up shop tomorrow with no reprieve for the holdings we each have in our account, he would be fine. For me, and probably most people in the "upper minnow class" let's call it, STEEM is the #1 holding in my crypto portfolio. I can't afford to have someone actively flagging everything I do to zero at this point. So I am too scared to fight... you're right.
But by the same token, I don't consider either of us, even with our respective delegations to fit in the qualifier of "Big Fish". Big in terms of minnows, I suppose that is true, but compared to many of those who have been accumulating since the beginning, I still feel like plankton. There are people on this platform with the SP to wipe out Haejin, Rancho, and that whole tribe without help, and they do nothing.
I guess I fall in to the old trap of "If those who have the power to do something, choose to do nothing, why should those with less power do anything?" But you are right, if enough people decided they were okay with the repercussions that would come from a full on flag war, a difference could be made.
I don't have an easy solution... how to muster the troops to do what is right in spite of our own self preservation.