I think you're misleading with your terms. The public float itself is about 2.3M shares now, post split. What I think you're referring to is what they call the "true" float; how many shares are actually available in the market.
I would then tend to agree with your point of the "true" float begin around the 1M share mark, as I believe at least 1M+ shares are tied up by longs who have no intentions of selling until they at least (a) receive their LHC spin-off shares, and (b) find out how big MTRE really is, to see how much they sell and how much they hold for that play long-term.
The company has provided enough inuendo to indicate that their bigger news would come post-split, the state we are now in. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting to see what they've been holding back. I think we are going to see some monstor PRs coming for both MTRE and LHC, that justifies the company expectations that they both will be dollar, and not penny, plays
JMHO