Mining pools are nodes that are voted for. Witnesses can be several or hundreds of people just as easily as a mining pool can be.
I am not a hater at all
Nobody in this conversation has called you a hater, or derided you at all. You are simply incorrect on the matter of which system is more decentralized in reality (DPOS systems exist today, Steem and BitShares, and they are more not less decentralized than Bitcoin, Ethereum and other PoW and direct PoS systems).
You have not addressed anything at all here I have raised other than to throw in a red herring statement. Narrowing the pool of possible numbers that confirm contracts of the total chain is not a good thing to my mind, nor is it a positive move from decentralizing the overall aspect of blockchain.
Merely questioning such a move towards DPOS which is central to the EOS protocol is making yourself a target on such a post as evidenced in the reply's above and in the OP with such statements as Vitalek Attacks DPOS.
"Attacking DPOS
Next Vitalik goes on to attack Delegated Proof of Stake." From the OP.
People that get all excited about an ETHEREUM KILLER while pumping an ERC-20 token that exists solely on the ETHEREUM Platform and has an ICO that will run for the next 11 month's at least, and which deals only in ETHEREUM for it's Token need a reality check. Especially when people just come and ask questions.