Any freeze of any account unrelated to the Steemit INC premine would never get consensus and would result in a fork. This is a very special condition related to solely the premined stake. The founders made social contracts, putting in the very roadmap what would be done with the stake, and centralizing the witnesses by voting was strictly prohibited.
Dan L realized this early on and left. Ned went on to try and pull a fast one and send us up the creek. Swift DPOS governance prevented the Steem chain from being vulnerable to being cannibalized.