Evan, get back to basics and forget this Ed Moncado insider trading bullshit. You are a genius and are sitting in a perfect position to make digital cash a reality. The only obstacle you have is that you are in complete control and vulnerable to being influenced. Take a trip back, read the old satoshi writings, and remember why you are here! Getting rid of that reference node is priority #1 and its good that you see it.
DASH can't get ride of the reference node. Maintaining round-robin payouts is an essential incentive to own masternodes.
If masternode payouts were truly random, people in the less lucky 50% would moan endlessly about 'not fair' and 'when do I get paid' and 'zomg a luckier node got paid 2/3/4/5 times so that is cheating' and so on.
That already happens to some extent, but would be much worse without a reference node.
You shouldn't be worried about the reference node being knocked offline.
You should be worried about the reference node being compromised or emulated/spoofed by adversaries.