its a psychological thing in the end
This applies to everything. Actually the most important thing in this whole story.
Glad you brought up the DAO. If a DAO inflation drain happens with the 50/50, Steem is literally dead. You might as well just move to paying out inflation to stake holders.
Personally, I think it is too much to lump in one HF, the DAO should happen first, maybe combined with the downvote pool and then let users get used to that and make the DAO a success before doing any other changes.