As far as I see, Dan has made one major strategic decision so far: to defer the development of bitshares (btsx) in favor of creating a new consensus system (DPOS).
Without actual data, its hard to do any real analysis. If NXT is an indication of the future, it would appear at least some of the market wants to move away from mining. if this trend continues, which i believe it will (again, no real data), then developing DPOS appears to be a good move.
on the other hand, sticking with the original bitshares plan wouldve gotten the flagship product to market much faster, which could have been huge! But honestly, btsx seems pretty damn complicated. even if the software made it to market quickly, would invictus have had the capability to effectively demonstrate the products value to the market? it is hard to say, but im leaning towards no
here is a question i have: i see the value in upgrading PTS to DPOS, but what advantages does DPOS provide for future projects like LOTTO, DNS, and ME? Blockchain sustainability for sure... but if that is all, then perhaps most of these projects could have been launched on regular blockchains and then upgraded to DPOS at a later time. But perhaps developing DPOS will give critical insight to developers that will greatly improve their future projects. Who knows? Not this guy.
As it stands, bitshares is having a hard time gaining trust/traction. Whether it was intended or not, i think releasing better versions of products that people are already familiar with (dpos, lotto, dns, etc) could go a long way in creating trust and increasing the user base before the big experiment is released.
i agree with jae, i think at this point in the game Dan's technical insight is critical for the role of CEO. as the landscape grows, CTO might be a better position for him, simply because he seems to enjoy software/systems development more than organizational development.