It sounds to me like Hal was describing something very close to the WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin) that's managed by BitGo, Kyber, and Ren.
It truly questions, or opens a debate, towards the big blockers' stance on the matter of "scaling". Because centralizing the network towards a few entities could be self-damaging to its existence, it also questions the motivations of the higher in the ranks of big blockers. But it's also that the either don't care, profit-seeking reasons, or they simply didn't learn enough for how this works.
I believe profit-seeking is the strongest motivation.