I will agree with you on that 100%, that punk seemed a little intimitated by Steve in this interview, but who wouldn't be?
Overrated on the mic? Opinion, but absolutely not. Now, he hasn't been doing very good lately, but thats because we expect so much from him now, after all his earlier epic promos, that, like Punk said himself, its really hard to top yourself, its one of the hardest things to do in the WWE, is to top yourself. Not on Steves level? Like Steve pointed out, he could get under Punks skin and bring Punk a whole level higher, the feud itself would be good for the whole WWE, punk included.
I am also fine with austin staying retired, the man needs his rest, he worked his ass off for a long time, but thats the what if question they were discussing. Im with you on that one, Punk turning face wouldn't work, but if punk were to come back as a tweener(like with Cena/Punk)then it could work tremendously, same with steve, if it were a tweener vs tweener, it would be an awesome feud.