I (and I suspect I am not alone here) believe that the current structure of the Petrov day ritual misses what is admirable about Petrov by about a mile. You write that the goal of the ritual is to eventually be able to demonstrate that:
we have 1000 people that if we give them the chance to be a troll or a conscientious objector or a something–they don’t take it
but Petrov himself was a conscientious objector (of a sort) and that’s why we admire him. He—in defiance of social pressure, risk of professional consequences, and danger to his life—abandoned his duty and prevented nuclear war. The ritual as currently structured shows that when faced with social pressure and threats of professional consequences the people in this community… fall in line and do what they are told.
I did see those points. I think the ritual as designed does not do a good job of supporting those points because, again, all the pressures are being lined up against pressing the button. I will acknowledge that there is probably no good way to design a ritual to celebrate the virtue of ignoring social pressure and career consequences to do the right thing (At least not one as participatory as this one) but that doesn’t mean we should build a ritual with the exact opposite message.