Most of your assumptions are right. Except one.
May main problem clearly was NOT "the lack of trust"
The problem was that I nmoticed (discovered) the "VYB launch post" way to late.

Vybrainium was launched on DEC-18
vyb.vyb post about the site beening already (!!!) live came out on DEC19
But...I found and read that post only on late DEC 21

Imediatelly, after few minutes, I started my POB FULL power-down
(Included in block 60,239,753 at 2021-12-21 19:46:18 (UTC)
But...it was already (as it turned out) way TOO LATE

I never had itensions to put more funds (from my other pockets) into VYB, therefore my HE buying bot was financed exceptionaly by a limited resources, i.e. only as much as I collect every day from LEO, HIVE, POB curations and WLEO/BLEO LP payouts. Hense - my very modest, non agressive POB buying patern.

I was to confident that once POB-VYB exchange starts, I can start my POB stake power down, and this gives me enough funds to exchange into VYB as many as I need.
So much wrong decision !....