I was thinking about this last night and it's still bugging me this morning. I googled around and didn't find a clear answer (and the white paper isn't clear either). During the debate you mentioned something about your influence and share dilution protection (that makes more sense to me than calling it interest) changing while you are powered down. Can you explain where that comes from? My understanding is nothing changes other than 7 days from the moment of power down, a conversion happens of VESTs to STEEM, but everything else remains the same. I have no basis for that understanding other than various conversations and, I think, a test I did weeks ago where (I think) my SP balance still increased while in a powered down state. Since the account still has VESTs during a power down, it would make sense to me the voting would still work as before.
Again, great job in the debate. This was the only thing I was confused by.
I have exactly the same question/confusion.