Just an observation: with a halving to 32, then 16, etc., the original SMC schedule is preserved, albeit on a different schedule than originally intended.  Most people would understand the need to combat inflation, but overall the change wouldn't seem overly heavy-handed or manipulative.

An immediate shift to 16 or lower is obviously more drastic, and it also implies a major departure from the original plan--not just tinkering and improvement, but a total and somewhat arbitrary shift.  Now consider the potential of introducing PoS sometime in the future: another major departure.

My point is that this seems great for those of us with existing SMC holdings, but consider from the perspective of someone just getting into the coin.  The existing community mines millions of SMC at relatively low diff, then goes and quarters the reward, and even introduces a means of further rewarding those that already have large holdings.  It comes across almost as a premine on a larger scale.  Although a coin that started out with the proposed new specs would interest a lot of people, wouldn't a reboot as drastic as the one being proposed cause some resentment among prospective new miners, given that it would effectively create a caste system?

I'm not arguing that nothing should be done.  I'm just suggesting that, all things considered, it might make sense to accelerate the timescale but not alter other fundamental aspects of the coin as drastically as is being proposed.