I don’t want to dismiss this out of hand, but I also don’t know how to solve it strictly in the context of ‘launching ICS’, y’know? On a personal level, I want this feature to launch so that we get the opportunity to see it in action and actually give these prospective consumer chains a chance to see how they’ll solve the problem. My hope is that some of these teams will have ideas that help us brainstorm ways to decentralize our validator set on the Hub itself.
Agreed on this 
Maybe ICS can reward lower ranked validators a bit more than higher ranked. The high ranked will then still have a decent APR, but the lower ranked slightly more (just thinking out loud)
I think it’s an investment - the Hub might offer this subsidy with the expectation that it will pay off later. I don’t think we can access lucrative investment opportunities without being willing to take some risks, and the actual risks we’re willing to tolerate are up to the voters. I’m generally risk averse, but I’d still rather have the opportunity to invest than not.
Not to forget that RS adds a layer of utility to ATOM. Which means that subsidizing the concept (at least in the early stage) might prove the PoC and get it moving past the phase of experimentation and early adopters. So I would certainly vote for a little incentive to make the early chains a bit more financially stable to pay the validators for the groundwork.