I'd actually love to hear more about your fixes, your suspicions and your feelings about blink's removal. The anthropology of the internet is fascinating to me and it sounds like you would have a pretty unique perspective on this. Either here or a blog or whatever, I'd love to know more.
There's not a lot to say. I didn't have any huge role in the project, although the experience working on it was hugely influential in the way I thought about programming. Maybe I'll write it up some day.
As for Hyatt, it just seemed like something he would do as a joke. Blink was a ridiculous feature, but it was a standard, which was a wedge that Mozilla leaned on heavily in those days.
