@jonno-katz asks why Andreas A doesn't have a reasonable opinion DPOS, which on the surface is a very reasonable question. AA is an expert on consensus, so alternates should be on the table, right? He should know!
I'm afraid not. I know why this is because I live it as my day job - The reason Andreas doesn't know about DPOS is that (a) DPOS just isn't above the radar, and (b) life's too short to know all the systems out there. Oh, and (c) people really don't want to know because their beliefs are going to be challenged.
In perspective, blockchain designs are very complicated, and to understand anything one has to work long and hard at it. Which one can do ... but there are limits. In practice it is reasonable to know a lot about one financial cryptography system if this is your day job