1. I do not see anything remotely resembling an evenly stepped pyramid in the extant core, so I think it's final form was it's originally intended one.

2. We just don't know what happened with Huni himself. There are a number of much smaller pyramids(cenotaphs) accreditied to him. However if he did indeed start the project it IS possible that his son may have finished it for himself. This is of course the neatest answer. and allows for him to have then gone on to build the Bent , having found the time. and then to have built the Red due to a combination of the structural failure of the Bent AND him again having the time.

I guess he lived longer than he expected

warwick

" I have always found that the main obstacle to free
association on these boards is the broad
misconception that what we do not know is more
significant than what we do know."

Warwick L Nixon, March 8, 2019