Welp, I tell ya, @ned... that is why I am working on this thing here that I call the "Dolphin Council" and we are working on making the role "Witness" equivalent and now that I am both, it is morphing into a combination council. I do not pretend to be the "leader" of this new group, but at this time I am guiding the charter of it. Your "gatekeepers" speech above gives me some great ideas for the Council. Thanks.
As you may have noticed, Many or Most of the new witnesses are mid-level folks, which is a good deal. New Blood, fresh ideas, different perspectives. The "DC" hopes to mirror this new(er) Steem Demographic and "inject" these traits into the Blockchain.

Personally as a stakeholder I want from this governance a robust combination of conservative process with consistent drive toward innovative development. There are certainly marked improvements to make here in the short term.

Could not have said it better myself, but that sums up a lot of my feelings about the "State Of Steem"...