Right. In fact, I believe there's already talk of letting cable down convert digital to analog which means satellite will be able to also.
From a legislative standpoint, none of this has anything to do with improving anything for the viewer - PQ, content or otherwise. It has everything to do with the potential $$ the government can get from repossesed spectrum. If they can get more of that bandwidth sooner by allowing providers to degrade PQ, I don't think they'll hesitate.
The only motivater more powerful than money to congress is votes and they only look at those in terms of "blocks". Sorry but I just don't see the "television viewer's vote" having much of an influence in Washington.