Your post completely collapses at the most basic level, the math.
You claim:
On a 7M ATOM deployment (~$70M at current prices),
That is simply false. At current prices $2.6, 7M ATOM is around $18M, not $70M.
This is not a small rounding error, it’s a 4x mistake. As a result, the quoted 2.6% flat management fee is wrong. The break even analysis vs staking APY is wrong and the entire argument about marginal returns is built on incorrect inputs. When the base valuation is wrong, every conclusion derived from it is meaningless. Frankly, this reads like something copy and pasted from chatgpt without even checking the numbers or understanding the content. If you can’t get a basic atom valuation right, your credibility on more complex financial structures is effectively 0% and to be blunt, anyone who has delegated their atom to a validator making errors of this magnitude should seriously consider redelegating as soon as possible. This level of carelessness is not what delegators expect when trusting someone with their stake. Before demanding clarifications from the Hydro team, you should first correct your own math, otherwise this isn’t a good faith contribution to the discussion