This totally freaks me out. A big part of what I invest in when I put time and money into something like this is the project's leadership. I have so far, on the whole, been very pleased with steemit in this regard. But no matter how you slice it, a move like this looks like piss poor leadership.
I do trust that Shrem will make a reliable and competent witness (and he has certainly been given enough of this site's money to afford high quality equipment) but voting him into a position of such responsibility before he has proven himself a reliable and competent witness is total bullshit.