Yeah, I realised, was just joking.  Having said that, if it was being implemented, it wouldn't surprise me if someone objected.  You would no longer be able to say that the max number of Bitcoins is less than 21 million.

Handling things as a soft fork has interest incentives.  It benefits those who hold coins already, but means that miners would be accepting lower payouts.  If miners are mainly mining and selling their Bitcoins, then they have little incentive to agree.  Many miners probably have some bitcoins saved, so it might work.