I do see the limit as different than a price feed premium, as it is coded in the blockchain
Likewise the ability of witnesses to feed any data they want as the alleged price is also coded into the blockchain. If stakeholders don't like it they can vote those witnesses out. So far we seem about evenly divided between voted witnesses using a premium (and doing so with at least some rational basis, not just feeding garbage or clearly-malicious values) and those not, so no clear stakeholder preference, but I'd still argue none of this violates the smart contract in the code.
Hi @smooth, glad you're back (heard you took a holiday)... I don't mean to chase you all round Steemit but I need you to check your Chat messages please. Thanks!!!
It is a valid point, and I know that you didn't mean it literally, but I think the idea that the witnesses can put in 'garbage' and cause the conversions to produce less than $1 USD worth of STEEM without getting voted out is a precedent I feel we should avoid. Not to say there aren't valid reasons for the 'garbage' but it does undermine trust in a part of the system that relies heavily on trust.