No, I always expected a wait. But I do think if you promise shareholders (Q4 2018) and then announce a delay (Q1 2019 testnet) then of course it could spook the market. It's so far though not having much impact one way or the other on the Steem price.
I also never said it's "horrible for me" or said I earn $20 a day; you came up with that. But sure, I would say the more Steem Holders can earn the more people will want to hold. Not just earn from holding Steem but from posting, the reward pool, or any other kind of interaction with the platform. The whole point of holding a token is either you think it's going to go up over time or you want to use it to earn $ or do something productive.
Steem allows people to add value currently but the reward pool isn't growing. As a result the community (not just me) is complaining. They say the reward pool is being exploited, or blame it on bots, but the truth is the reward pool hasn't been growing. Vote selling and bots are a separate issue but connected.