Joe you ask some really valid questions and I will give my best answers. I am certainly not the expert, but can help you broadly to the best of my ability.
The reason that I think @fulltimegeek has decided to try to "stop" him is because he feels that he is unfairly taking too much money from the rewards pool because he has risen to a level so high that few could even challenge him. It would be one thing if the money was earned and no one would doubt the quality of the work, but the difference here is the he has risen so high in power he is the sole arbiter of his own work. In fact he will actively counter-act any efforts to have a voice against him and will not consider the implications that this has on everyone else.
I don't think @fulltimegeek cares about the money he makes, as long as he makes it by being fair (ie letting the other's judge his work and be subject to their opinions too.) My guess is that the other guy has lived by the credo of "I'm the biggest, so do what I want"... and now @fulltimegeek is now saying, "hey I will challenge that you are the biggest". So I don't think its about the money by itself, its about the way he has used power to take what many consider to be a rather large slice of the overall pool every day (and growing).
Don't know about the friendly whale, so no comment.
I doubt it is about how he chooses to spend the money he earns, my guess is that @fulltimegeek has an issue with ceding the fact that the guy is unable to be stopped if he posts less than quality work relative to the community standards. In fact I think I have read somewhere that @fulltimegeek is fine with taking him down into the 60s so that the community can once again police its own and protect the integrity of the system.
I don't think it would be relevant whether or not anyone fights back in this situation. My guess is the people involved fully anticipate to use the levers of the system so neither is naive about fighting back.
My guess on the actions that could be taken would be for him to come up with a plan to live peacefully with everyone. On this part, I am not involved, but this is what I do in real life. I would suggest to all parties (of relevance) get together and find out what can be lived with and what can't. And see if there is any room for compromise. In my opinion, one thing that I think would be necessary is he would have to voluntarily agree to some standards (which he would agree to ahead of time) and then agree to be "sanctioned" (for lack of a better word) in the event that he broke his own agreement. But if he could find a way to operate in peace and follow a standard that he would agree with, then I would think the people against him would have no reason to challenge him. (all of this is my opinion and am certainly not in a position to know what either side thinks).
I have heard that there were reasonable requests, but honestly I have no first hand knowledge. It would seem to make sense that there was because this situation isn't going to be good for either side.
I highly doubt that last point. If you have followed @fulltimegeek at all you will find someone who has been a giver to the platform and ceded his power for the good of everyone. He does not strike me as a man that is now prone to completely changing who he is (and has been). I think this last point is way off base as @fulltimegeek has already had to ask his own followers to make sacrifices in order to prepare for this next step. I think he would stop tomorrow if the other side said "lets talk". Just my opinion but I'm pretty confident in it.
Thanks for the questions, I am answering them out of respect for the way you asked them. I'm not sure if you were legitimately wondering, or you wanted to see what my responses would be. However, if you really had those questions and wanted the answers, then I certainly would like to help you with my best answers. I appreciate your questions and hope you were honestly asking, because if so maybe I clarified a few issues in your mind!
Take care and thanks for the questions. And I would advise you to learn more about all the facts before you get involved.
You are a little more plugged in on the "drama" than me, so I won't pretend to know better. I would be surprised if this is theater, but we will know more when we see what comes of this. Some above said earlier that he heard they were close to an agreement. We will see if this comes true. If it does, then we can see what changes have been agreed to in order to determine whether this was theater!
Thanks for the reply yourself and thanks for the kind words to others on my post!
The rumor of there being peace was just a rumor. So it seems the fighting will be starting any day now. I hope it ends quickly.