You don't need 5 million, that is just the number that would be optimal.
They are not about to say, "surprise, you only have 3 million so your out!"
I agree.
no way that would be consistent with what NEM is and want to present to the world.
All the decisions so far were spot on and there is no doubt that this "5 million XEM" thing will benefit NEM and not harm it.
Also, based on experience so far, NEM is a long term thing and there is no rush with anything and I like that approach a lot so I don't think there is going to be - ups, you didn't buy/have 5 mil on time so you are missing out on anything and will never be able to have some X feature/benefit whatever.
The only thing people may (and probably will) miss out is a low price to buy XEM.
I'm slowly converting all my NXT to NEM. I have my orders on Polo that are slowly being filled day by day for a price I'm comfortable with...
The highest price I was buying for was 113 sat/xem and right now I'm hoping to get as much as I can before some new ninja announcement comes out.
I don't know if price is going to be even lower but once the mobile app appears and devs finish the whitepaper and turn to really build on top of this most advance "base" in crypto, we all will be sad we haven't invested more.
Let's not forget that this "base" which already works just fine with one of the smoothest launches I've encountered. This "base" already offers some never before seen things like multisig, PoI, very neat Harvesting options, remote nodes, encrypted messaging etc.
I'm saying "base" because that it is - it is only beginning of the platform that will come in the future and I thing it will be HUGE.
I like this NIS/NCC thing because this modular approach gives so much opportunity for various things to be built on top and around NEM.
I already have a choice of having a full node on my computer or using NCC wallet more like electrum wallet.
When I fire up NXT wallet I have to wait for hours to update. I'll never have to wait that with NEM... BTC - I'm even scared to run the Armory on my desktop pc because I don't have SSD yet on it and waiting for a two day torment of my HDD is not an option...
What can go wrong with NEM?
A lot of things - fate of all cryptos is unclear but they are the future no doubt there...
Some big flaw in NEM? - maybe but seen how fast the reaction our devs already presented I'm at ease...
What if something better comes along? - always a possibility but don't forget that adaptability is the key to success in nature and NEM is built with that adaptability in mind. We have great devs, a great number of supporting teams of different specialization, best distribution so far, lots of people supporting and adding to the project already, big stash of XEM in different funds to grow further than we can now imagine. Also we are now beginning to build up a momentum, infrastructure etc. and that is the "only" adventage Bitcoin has and it is what makes its value now.