After talking with @gandalf today, even if vote decay doesn't become a thing. I definitely advocate for automatic witness disabling, as in; A witness does not produce a block (missing them) for 14 days, does not update the price feed, is on an old version of the chain (HF20-21-22 for us) just, disable the witness.
If a witness isn't able to find a solution to these problems in 14 days, 2 weeks, half a month. There is no need for them to be an "active" witness per se. If they, however, fix their issues. They can return on being an active witness.
I still think vote decaying is a better option but... this is somewhat a middle-ground.