@aggroed has discussed how Hardfork 20, and a few other updates ultimately cost 10 million Steem in 2018 (Steem traded in a range of $1.00 to $6.00 USD for that year, so they sold about $10,000,000 to $30,000,000 USD worth of Steem, give or take).
I think one of the concerns is that @steemit Inc. might be somewhat incompentent in terms of getting their money's worth, and developer groups outside of Steemit Inc. (I.e. @blocktrades) might be able to do a better job, faster and for a cheaper price - if @ned @elipowell and @steemit Inc. agree to this proposal, I think it would confirm that. It would ultimately be a wise choice for them though, to admit their short comings and hire outside talent if it gets a better bang for their buck - Afterall, they have quite a large stake, and whatever is good for the Steem blockchain and Steem, would reflect in their net-worth.
I also think it's foolish to create a Plan B once Plan A is unworkable. The whole point of having a Plan B is to prepare, in case something unexpected happens to Plan A!!!