DT1 is capped at 100 and my exclusions have no influence over the candidate pool. I have the same chance to drop out of DT1 next month as any other candidate regardless of how many of those imaginary "friends" I have and said "friends" are not rushing to parrot my exclusions either. So this conspiracy theory doesn't make sense.

I have stopped caring about the DT impact of my decisions. I'm managing my trust list based solely on how I personally want to see trust ratings and flags, and I expect others to do the same with regards to me.