This post has helped educate me even more on all the moving parts of this platform. Thanks for that.
Initially, I agreed with your well-made points. The more I think about it, the less I think SBD matters. It's originally stated purpose in the whitepaper was to mitigate the volatility risks of holding Steem and it does that very well, but at a cost.
In the post titled, Sbd Debt Issue Riding The Steem Price Roller Coaster --- by @timcliff
he goes on to point out:
Assume at today's prices, the system will generate $10,000 SBD of author rewards.
- If the price of STEEM goes up 10x, then the system will generate $100,000 SBD of author rewards.
- If the price goes back down, the blockchain will need to pay back the $100,000 worth of SBD debt, but at 10x the cost.
Witnesses have to create 10x the Steem to payout the SBD earned earlier, in this example, and this puts downward pressure on the price today to pay a debt earned in the past.
The price of Steem suffers to keep the price of SBD stable. Now that Steem is no longer hyperinflated since the last fork, the purpose of SBD, mitigating the hyperinflation, is not as critical anymore.
Also, merchants do not need to change any of their processes for pricing items or accounting. Price a product in their local fiat as always. POS apps like BlockPay would convert Steem at its going price when the purchase was made into their fiat price. Done. Books stay the same for taxes and accounting purposes.