If the steem ecosystem would be somehow destroyed, who would lose the most? The whales. Who are most of the whales? The top 20 witnesses.
 I think it's safe to say that especially the whales have a huge interest in the steem ecosystem being able to grow BIG over time. And that is only possible if the userbase grows and if the new users are able to make their cut. They know this fact. 
Maybe this new proposal benefits them them most in the short term, but they also face the biggest risk of ultimately loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars of their investment.

So assuming they want to screw the average joe for maximizing their profits makes no sense, because this is not possible. If they fuck it up, the price will be 5 cents in just a few weeks without ever recovering. Nobody wants that.