>and even going as far as outperforming Hive itself but I think this was the idea of SMT's in the first instance

Yes it was. Secure the foundation infrastructure, support massive growth on the second layer. Few remember these days. 

>but what if something like that happens in Hive like in Steem in a couple of years and we have to move house again. 

It is always a possibility, but the reason for the move (centralization) is far less likely to happen now, at least through a hostile takeover like it was. There will be plenty more competition though. But think about it this way, that there are companies and platforms valued in the hundreds of billions - if Hive hit 2B in market cap, that is about 5 dollar HIVE - and that changes everything again, as it will be spread more widely than it was and, offer a lot more platform experience. 

I don't see it lasting forever, but there is so much potential to be a market innovator, I feel I have to be part of it.  

>However ,if you wrote off your mortgage with the cash out, would that be enough for you?

Not really. It would ease my mind, but it will not add a passive income. Possibly, at a significant high, I might cashout and buy an investment property to bring in passive income. 

>The best case scenario for those embedded in the platform is to make so much passive income that it dwarfs your "real" job.

Yep - I am far away from that - but edging closer year by year. I just hope it isn't because I lose my job though! :D

> I migrated over completely myself but what if something like that happens in Hive like in Steem in a couple of years and we have to move house again.

There is only one true vote, with your wallet and your feet. The more time I spend in crypto the more I realize that we are also shaping highly coordinated communities(call it 100% democracy instead of 50% majority democracy). We migrated because as a community, we recognized there would be more value for ourselves if we migrate. Interestingly enough, the hard-fork seems a beautiful democratic construct. You can keep the old AND go for the new. You can try them out and see what you like best, then swap completely if ever. You kept your STEEM and received HIVE, you then choose what to do with your life. Yes we did remove some members, but that was the value proposition. The active community creates the value and thus decides where to invest it.

HIVE keeps hard-forking, and that is OK.