Actually, you contradicted yourself..
According to your statements:
1) People that sold today will be on the record books until Thursday, because on Friday...their trades are settled.
2) They are only S.O.L according to your theory if settlement is declared, signed by judge, and recorded on Friday.
3) I hardly think #2 is going to occur.
IMO
1) You get the settlement monies based on how many shares you have in your account on the Trade Date.
2) Settlement is declared. Trading is Halted. Wait 3 Days for the all trades to be settled. Record. And disperse the settlement.
3) If #2 is not true, then there will be a lot of people holding WAMU shares with $0? What happens to them? I think its very illogical. That would be like writing a post-game report before the game is over.
4) Dividend record and dispersal dates are released much before the actual dates so people have fair warning if they want to get into a stock to collect the dividend.
ALL IMO. Anyone have actual facts?