The last month was also a testing phase for us (as well as the witnesses and other developers). As a result, we can ensure a smoother hardfork as a few bugs were actually identified and solved.
Hard fork dates must be announced with enough time for businesses (especially exchanges) to be able to perform the upgrade. IF for some reason the majority of witnesses don't vote in this hardfork, it would not effect businesses that have upgraded - everything will keep on functioning as normal with the current hardfork version, even with the upgraded software.
Understood, and thanks for the clarification on the purpose of the announcement.
Testing is great and important. Have there been any parallel-feed tests this time to see how the code handles real account sizes, trafic, etc? But more importantly, are there any kill switches for the part of the HF that some people predict might reap havoc on the platform or even drive a mass exodus?
There are at least seven different ways how HF21 could backfire, and it would be nice knowing you guys have kill switches and contingency plans in place on what to act if any of these scenarios end up playing out.