I prefer to think this action is part of a plan to better re-distribute Steem to a wider user base.
Suppressing the price is by far the most effective way to better re-distribute Steem. No-one will consider investing to become a whale if it costs them half a million dollars. Now if it costs them ten times cheaper, that's a more reasonable deal.
That's absolutely the case... and as I have posted, a decreased steem price will lead to higher SP rewards from posting and commenting. People just need to sit back and relax, because everything is going to be ok.