True. I think you have to take into account the amount of interaction created to vote in the witnesses to create a stalemate. Thus nothing.
There is definitely not a single point of escalation in this. There are multiple and ignoring some points doesn't make the other points more severe. While 22.2 could be considered an escalation, it had a public stated goal and rationale of being temporary. There could have been some communication from Justin's side, but there wasn't.
- That failure to communicate was a point of escalation.
- The deceiving of exchanges to power up was an escalation.
- The takeover was an escalation.
- HF 22.5 was a de-escalation (with the caveat that it was done under a central authority).
- Calling the fork the work of hackers was escalation
- Demanding a change in powerdown time is escalation
This is all from after 22.2. There were other escalations beforehand including:
- failure to answer requests for communications
- Announcement that Steem will move to Tron
- The use of Genesis coins for Tron super Rep voting
All of those factor into the current situation.