They can't fork away into a more centralized free coin if they wish to...
Indeed.
You keep posting these charts as if the negative externality was not obvious....
I am trying to get both sides to speak the same language. I've partly succeeded because it sounds like we are in agreement regarding the above chart, and just in disagreement over the nature of the externality that may exist. You think it's hugely negative; I think it's actually positive.
My question to you is this: Production quotas (to reduce perceived externalities) are AFAIK always enforced by some form of centralized government or powerful institution. Do you believe it will be possible to enforce this block space production quota without creating the very centralized governance model you are afraid of?
This relates to my debates with Gmax:
The physicist James Clerk Maxwell hypothesized a daemon who could quickly open and close valves to collect the air molecules with higher kinetic energy from the slower moving molecules, thereby creating a perpetual motion machine.
The cryptographer Gregory Maxwell hypothesized a daemon who could control the block size limit to prevent mining centralization without turning into the very centralized force the daemon was summoned to fight. I think it will need centralize intervention until the block size can be set in stone and forgotten.
You tendency to confuse Bitcoin with free market is largely misguided.
To quote davout:
Do you think there should be an "artificial, centrally planned limit" on the amount of wood people are allowed to chop from the rainforest?
Do you think there should be an "artificial, centrally planned limit" on the amount of endangered species' specimens one is allowed to kill?