Looking at the hash rate reductions and how it seems to be explicitly controlled first (1) to drop just below 50% and then (2) fading out, it's almost as if Satoshi was thinking (1) build trust in the network by not maintaining a 51+% attack position and (2) the network is self-sustainable, my work here is done.
Yeah, I imagine there was a testing aspect to what he was doing, and you pointed out some potential tests. Maybe just making sure the version that went live responds the way he predicted it would.
