Heer's the analogy: Professional investors in other RL nations routinely measure "country risk", asking questions like: does the local government keep its promises. Confiscate private assets? Give out the goodies only to its friends? And (important) does it have stable laws and fair judges?
It matters. This was a HUGE change in the 1980s in China, where the government enacted commercial laws, arbitral panels, and two "special economic zones" with simplified rules and different easier courts ... and sent their judges to law school : ) Really. The relevant rating agencies and foreign ministries upped their ratings of the safety of investing in PRC business. Commercial outside investment in China increased radically ... and has never ceased.
In SL, let's say you are starting a big new venture. Maybe a store like the old CN Emporio Romani, but not necessarily ... maybe a big art gallery .. maybe a big environmental NGO installation. How SAFE would you feel about plunking down a big land and building investment, and human-training time, on CDS land? Is it a meritocracy? Or do "all the goodies" only go to people with the right group of friends? Is the government mostly about building and fostering creativity? Or mostly about politicians chasing titles and attacking each other, ignoring the needs of the sim and the outside world?
And can you get "a fair shake"? How much risk do you have that the Supreme High Justice Whatever is reasonably impartial, and not the cousin, or alt, of the guy you're having the dispute with?
This is not about money. It's about being attractive to any kind of project. For example, Carl Metropolitan's NCI group made a big bet on Desmond's Caledon, setting up a big non-commercial newbie educational project there. Cool stuff. Because they were pretty sure that Despot Des was going to be around for a while ... an asset to them.. and well managed, not an erratic mudwrestling contest.
I believe that CDS will continue to look for affiliations, commercial and creative opportunities, whoever is running it. If we land a big one ... and CDS decides that we do want to do it ... what will that project's leaders think of us? Would they feel good about making that kind of bet on CDS? What do we need to do, to make sure that answer is yes?
I've had a while to think about it. Part of my answer is, make the SC credible. A name change would be a good idea too, but the most serious issue is that it's moribund.
Regards Jamie