I get what you are saying about powering down as a means to have a consistent financial planning for someone who needs to pay bills but it becomes a perception thing. There is still a feeling that when people are powering down especially into the price dip that we are experiencing it just feels like they are driving the price down and trying to get the money while they can even if it is basically the same as if someone just took SBD and cashed them out. I get that part of the reason the whales have to power down to get a distribution is because a lot of their money is coming from curating which is paid in Steem Power. Plus they want to take some earnings.
The one main issue I see is giving random people access to the account presents a potential issue but I guess the only way they would be able to extract funds is if they tried to power down and the first payout would take 7 days and everyone would notice and then the account could be taken back from them if someone tried that.