Look, you seem to have very strong opinions regarding @ned, which is why I found your comment so savage. You don't need to make him Satan to justify your opinion. He didn't mine the rewards pool to fatten his wallet, unlike most whales did, and still do.
If you want to compare selling the stake to pay developers that was originally claimed to have been mined to support development to financial manipulation of rewards, I'm not going to be able to agree with you.
I'm grateful Steem exists, and reckon we owe him honest statements rather than demonization.
You do you.
Yes, nice that his amalgamation with dan left us better off.
But to expect me to take his backstabbing in a non-personal way, no.
He actively worked against the better interests of the average user the entire time he was here.
Some things he had done for him benefited us all, some only benefited him, and his sycophants. (dlive, dtube(mostly), and utopian(on the whole) come to mind.)
So, all hail the amalgamation of ned and dan that led them to launch steem!
F' ned for not doing a better job at customer service to make his creation a success.
People invested real money on his promises of a better tomorrow, and what did he leave us with?
A done deal token swap killing the chain that only didn't happen because the profane rioted?
F' him.
Actively breaking steem and going on walkabout for two years is no cause for hero worship, iyam.
He is dead to us, let his account rot.