Oh of course, you even lead with stating that you would like to make some points as devils advocate and I agree with that approach. It's like when you're doing prompt engineering for an LLM. i.e. need to make sure we loud all context into our shared memory so our neural networks can properly evaluate the scenario and make informed statements. It's a collaborative effort. :)

Regarding discharge protection and BMS safety I completely agree with a hybrid approach of discharge protection with a grace period to alert the user if the device is armed. The main issue with battery safety is when the device is left unattended charging, but I do agree that ideally it should be shutoff completely while unattended. However, when riding, I would rather my board start smoking and catch on fire than ditch me going 25mph. Obviously there needs to be a hybrid approach as you describe as the current situation is not optimal.

Yes, the EUC market is a prime example. There aren't actually that many VESC EUC builds because there is so much competition it is not needed.

Regarding "drinking the kool-aid" and "the pioneer of a technology not is not often the one that sees it through to maturity", I feel like a prime example was the Boosted boards.