I agree with your way of seeing how RCs would work better. It's not the issue of counting them as they are spent, which is what's really needed for HF21. That can stay. It's the issue of how they're meted out in the first place. 

Here's the thing I've come to: It isn't that they don't understand that these various methods are feasible for making this platform more hospitable to low SP people or new users unready to buy STEEM right off the bat. It's that they don't care about that. 

This HF was a success to them because... well... it was a success for everything they care about.

Many years ago a Buddhist teacher responded to my criticisms of things I'd newly discovered about the community of teachers by saying, "The path of awakening is the path of disillusionment. You have to let go of all your illusions, especially your illusions about [buddhism]." Well I've been applying that to everything ever since.

In this case, the time has come for us to let go of our illusions about what this platform means to the company that created it, and realize that it's not what it means to us.  The question then becomes, well how do you personally relate to that? That's a question each of us has to answer for ourselves.