>  It was based on a previous though unimplemented hardfork code change that was written by steemit at a previous time that intended to set authorities to the null key for a different list of accounts

Actually I believe it was based on a Steemit-developed fork which WAS implemented. I could be wrong though, I haven't reviewed the code fragments personally and have heard this stated by others.

> Rare communication from a CTO would be fine. Rare communication from the CEO and defacto overall community leader is inexcusable

I would say this depends actually. CTO can be a communications driver and this works quite well for some other companies and crypto projects, particularly when the CTO is a visionary with good communications skills and communication is development-focused (such as when the platform is immature and in a phase of constant development). What is really more important is that there be someone doing it.

>  HF20 allows for discount account creation tokens, but the flagship app of the platform doesn't let you claim or use them and effectively we're in the same spot as a community where onboarding new users is still a bad and unclear experience

Add to this that the @steem account has stockpiled about 30k free account tokens, and rather than loosening the restrictions and allowing more users to sign up, in fact there have been fewer, and now there is talk of transitioning to a paid signup model. This is insanity.