> absolutely does balance interests - namely, its own - beyond simply being an academic vehicle for communication of a stable thesis

As a business, sure. As a committee, it’s still a deeply technical process. I can say with a lot of confidence that optics weren’t considered in any of this, possibly to a fault.

> and a nontrivial portion of the U.S. economy

This vastly overstates the amount of assets tied to the S&P 500. It’s a lot. But it’s a strong minority of equity exposures.