I watched the full broadcast, after having read some of the comments in this thread first. I’ll say that some of the assessments commented on in this thread are similar to how I perceived the broadcast. Others, not so much. Perhaps such outlooks could be attributed to the old adage - when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
I wanted to believe that when Bro Sanderson was speaking of unity, that he was speaking of unity of faith as Jehovah’s people. Or, perhaps even unity of belief in God’s word. I thought that his illustrative comparison of the different sects and sub-sects in Christendom was actually pretty good. But I don’t think he was speaking about just those. He was really speaking of unity in listening to the direction coming from Jehovah’s “organization”. It went off the rails for me at that point on the topic of unity.
I think you have the balance on the matter. I feel we have to go with the evidence, rather than guesswork streaming from a need to analyse where this is all leading. I’m not saying that other comments here are not worthy of consideration, they are, and of valuable insight, yet we have to ask ourselves to consider the insight that the GB have into their predicament.
Personally, insofar as the GB are concerned, their insular, protected and paid for world of dictatorial power, ease, adoration and luxury, creates in them an entirely different life experience to that of the flock.
I would be very surprised if they even begin to understand the world they see about them, from vaccines to earning a living wage in the face of this world we have made for ourselves. I do not believe they have the wit to understand what their proclamations mean for the flock. Their only feedback is cowed subservience of praise, and thus the more distorted becomes their understanding of the Word. The studies in distorted psychology and psychiatric illness of prisoners in maximum security jails in America, gives first hand evidence of the effects upon the mind to isolation - and it is more akin to what we see within the GB, than are the influential pressures of politics amid a lifetime of earning for the common man and where values are tempered by the need to negotiate our existence within the commercial world and our world of faith.
It is far easier for the GB to live the dream of their “spiritual paradise” that they have built for themselves, and to come to believe their own interpretation of that world. It is at this point that we see the difference between their concept of unity and that of the brethren as a whole. It is this divide that they are fearful of. They are (in my opinion) beginning to see the difference between the truth and dream, between their fabricated world, and our world; between an easy display of faith, and the hard won faith of those in the world. They face no day to day test, other than their physical needs, and which seem to be centred on their authority, applause, fine spirits and food. They resort to nonsensical idioms such as their “go-bag syndrome” of creating urgency and fear within the flock, keeping them in expectation and tied to them for more information. In short, they see the threat to their comfort and livelihood because their support is melting away like an iceberg in Death Valley. So indeed, they speak of unity, but their problem is that their unity, and the unity of the Spirit inspired by the attributes of Jehovah are exact opposites.