I agree with you in general but don't forget bm was in pressure to give the bonuses earlier (end of 2014) because of taxes etc. he would face if AGS funds would not spend the same year they purchased them... That was one of the main reason he made the merge thing (in my opinion, and not VOTE etc.) so a big stake of BTS from current devs are vested the next 2 years and they have still motivation to work for the project... Imagine the merge would not happen at 2014 and he would give the bonuses like he did now? ... am I missing something?
You are pretty close, except for the phrase in bold. Let me unravel it a bit into the logical reasoning sequence:
1. The Great BitCoin Depression reduced our development runway from 2 down to 1 years.
2. The idea of a self-funding block chain emerged as a solution that would provide sustainable long-term funding.
3. With it, there was no need to incur the tax and progress penalties of carrying half the funds into the second year at a much slower burn rate. Best value was to use all donations this year.
4. VOTE was the next DAC available to be implemented to honor post-Feb AGS donors.
5. To honorably build VOTE to be the best it could be, we would have implemented what BTS is today, including the self-funding strategy and inheriting all the features of BTS.
6. That would have left BTSX as the far distant second-best crypto in the world - stuck without any further funding.
7. This would have been contrary to BM's other obligation to do what was best for BTSX.
dilemma [dih-lem-uh] noun
1. a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives..
Thus, something had to give. That led to the need for BM to focus on just one DAC so that each new, better, DAC didn't cannibalize the network effect of previous best effort.
Thus the incorrectly named "merger" was
the ultimate effect not the initial cause.
We are here where we are by a Darwinian process of natural selection. The current solution was deliberately engineered to be the most survivable.
And to survive, we dinosaurs must continue to evolve.
Rumor has it that mammals are on the drawing board...