My take away: we need to test stuff before we release it ! :-)

Very good post ! The problems you spot are real and important. They might not be the only problems, nor even the most important though. The "consensus change" you propose is motivated by good intentions but doesn't sound realistic - you'd need to have the top 20 voting in favour of ... decreasing their own power and rewards. Ever met turkeys who have voted for Christmas? The technical benefit can be obtained by increasing block-time to 6 seconds and doubling blocksize (while doubling the top 20 reward).

Non-consensus changes: who pays for the testnets? Transparent communication loosens the tight grip Stinc holds over the Top 20. Stinc can play the political games of the Communist Party and use its very significant steem power to "beat into submission" and turn the Top 20 into puppets (from the HF20 experience, it is the current situation)

They could indeed become more professional and go for a tool that helps into managing the set of features going into the next HF ...