How is freezing a balance on Steem "theft" where as freezing a balance on EOS/Telos "governance"? I don't see the difference, except that on Steem something like that requires a hardfork where as on EOSIO it's just a line they add to their config file.

I don't disagree with most what what you've said though, just figured I'd dive into that one point.

We (Hive account@greymass) have been considering Telos as a potential chain to expand our BP/Infrastructure into, but haven't made a decision yet. Our wallet already supports it and Sqrl is largely based off our efforts :)