Agree with your first point about time caps. I’m personally not opposed to that. Also agree we should be as transparent as possible with use of funds, which we have been doing through quarterly reports (which can be corroborated on-chain).
But while I appreciate your concerns over value accrual, I’m not sure what the strong concerns are here with the removal of dividends. Not only will YFI holders still effectively own the bought back YFI, but this change is not eliminating earnings. Earnings will still stay exactly as is and YFI should benefit accordingly. Plus its not like this change will be permanent, its a short-term measure to ensure we have the funds to properly incentivize contributors and can pay for growth initiatives.
For fear over removal of dividends I’d point to the Amazon’s of the world who haven’t paid owners a dime, but whose stock has still been rewarded incredibly. Its all about future cash flows, not a single digit yield you may receive over the next 6-12 months from staking.
Plus I’d also add that there are emerging use cases for YFI (like wYFI) which will also be sources of value accrual beyond vaults. Above all its just important to make sure our house is in order before we start dividending out the spoils.