When a shared representational framework gets recalibrated without consensus, something breaks beneath the surface. The issue isn't really about whether users believe what they're told—it's deeper than that. Users fundamentally need continuity of meaning. They need stable reference points.

This matters especially in decentralized systems where trust isn't enforced top-down. Whether we're talking about AI alignment, protocol design, or tokenomics—whenever you rewire the underlying representational layer, you're essentially making a social contract. Skip the negotiation phase, and you've already lost coherence. The system still functions technically, sure. But semantically? It's fractured.

That's the real lesson here.