Why does everyone think this was an existing asset?
Because the people don’t really give much priority to understanding the nitty-gritty of backends. They just see that token is same in their wallet and on exchanges. Didn’t require to be listed again.
If analysed purely on the technicalities, then yes I totally agree. Blocktrades pre-hive post about forks also backs it. In a future with blockchain specialized courts this may be an important thing, but right now I don’t see any prosecutor reject the case because the understanding isn’t that far yet.
Also, while I understand the devil’s advocate part, is this really how we want to mainstream? I know it’s not how I imagine mainstraiming will (ever) happen.
Well what I actually think is that we WILL be able to have our cake and eat it too. We can "steal funds" and when a centralized attacker "steals funds" in return we can take them to court and win and they can't take us to court. Only centralized authorities can be regulated. And they will be. That's the crazy part.