?
I wouldn't say majority wanted to eliminate it, the reason for the freeze was because they could easily just have withdrawn and vested it on other accounts to circumvent the non-witness voting block on the main account. What transpired after was even worse than anyone could've imagined in terms of security of the chain so I'd say it definitely was an issue of chain security.
Not trying to be rude here but seems you're remembering it quite different.
RE: What are your expectations of Hive witnesses?