I think it was pumped up to avoid a flippening. The only evidence I have is price action and history of miners moving back and forth but it's pretty intriguing if you look closely.
I have been thinking the same thing, though no proof as you allude to. tether printing ramped up at the same time as well. also i think EDA was an economics disaster
It should be even Stephan across the board. Pools won't 51% attack because miners will ditch it the second they pull any shady buisiness. Demonizing miners doesn't win hash wars.
Half the planet gets it in one order, the other half in the other order. If a miner finds a block before getting the order correct they get orphaned by ~half of the other miners.
Rappidly broadcast two of the same transactions in opposite order from relay nodes on opposite sides of the planet, rinse repeat. Nodes have to constantly reorder wasting bandwidth.