I have met a few of the witnesses and they are decent guys (not many ladies that I know of). Most of them are not making a profit on running their servers, but they believed in what Steem could be.
Analogies to Linux or buses don't really work. Blockchains are a radical concept. Satoshi is a genius. There are lots of different implementations with various concepts. The Steem version was good in being quick, free and giving anyone the opportunity to earn. The use of 'ownership' would not have arisen if Steemit and Justin could not control so much Steem and use it to stage a coup, but it was a risk. Ideally you should rely on technical measures to keep it decentralised, but there has to be some trust in this case. The lack of that led to the current situation. People are the weak point.
RE: I'm not voting for any witnesses and you probably shouldn't either!